CURRIE, JOSEPH THOMAS (1890-1965)

CURRIE, JOSEPH THOMAS, fire chief, sportsman, and entertainer; b. Chatham, 16 Jan 1890, s/o Thomas Currie and Alice Crane; m. 1913, Alice Mary Dower, d/o James Dower and Mary Fraser, of Chatham; d. there, 21 Jun 1965.

Before his death in 1916, at age sixty, Joseph T. Currie's father was the oldest member of Chatham's volunteer fire department, and prior to his death in 1965, at age seventy-five, Joseph T. Currie himself was believed to be the oldest fire chief in Canada. He was succeeded as chief by his son James A. Currie, who maintained the family's connection with the department until his death in 1986.

The main demand of Currie's position as fire chief was that he be on call at all times from his regular employment, which was with Canadian National Railways, and later the New Brunswick Liquor Control Board.

Currie was a hockey and baseball player in Chatham in his youth and a lifelong supporter of organized sports. He was a member of the Chatham Citizens' Band and St Michael's Church choir and was "a vocalist of no mean order." He was a director of the Miramichi Sanatoria Club, which entertained tuberculosis patients and other shut-ins, and an amateur actor and theater director. One of the many plays he directed was "Luck of the Irish," which was staged at the Chatham Opera House in 1937 under the auspices of St Michael's Society. In recognition of his many public services he was made a Freeman of the town of Chatham in 1963.

Currie was predeceased in 1961 by his wife, Alice M. Dower, and survived in 1965 by four sons and two daughters.