GLOUCESTER: Capt. Nicholas P. Curcuru, 92, died Sunday, September 11, 2011 in the Seacoast Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, following an extended illness. He was the husband of Phyllis B. (Holmes) Curcuru.
Born in Gloucester on August 27, 1919, he was the son of the late Phillip and Grace (Parisi) Curcuru. He was a lifelong resident and had attended St. Ann’s School.
From the age of fifteen, he was a commercial fisherman aboard his father’s vessel, the Bethulia, until the war broke out. Following the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy in January of 1942. He served as a gunner’s mate for twenty-two months aboard PT boats in New Guinea and Borneo. He was honorably at the rank of Chief Boatswain’s Mate in October of 1945.
Following the war, he returned to fishing aboard the Philip and Grace and later owned and operated the Barnegat. He had also owned the former Pine Tree Tavern on Main Street, better known as “Fats Walla’s.”
Capt. Curcuru was a sixty-eight year member of the Capt. Lester S. Wass, Post #3, American Legion. He was also a member of the Amvets Post #32 of Gloucester and the PT Boat Association.
In addition to his devoted wife of sixty-nine years, he is survived by two daughters, Charlene Curcuru of Lynn, Maureen Oathes of Gloucester; a son and daughter-in-law, Kevin and Jeanie (Mulry) Curcuru of Naples, FL; six grandchildren, Jenelle, wife of David Sgroi, Brian Wilson and Todd Paul Guay, Nichole Oathes, Meagan Curcuru and Nicholas Curcuru; three great-grandchildren, Samantha Sgroi, Chanel Richards and Jesse Lee Guay. He is also survived by three brothers, Gerald, husband of Joanne Curcuru, Anthony, husband of Janice Curcuru and Charles “Bobby”, husband of Marcia Curcuru; four sisters, Grace, wife of Sebastian Nicastro, Rosalie “Lale” Backus, Mary, wife of Paul Fuhs, Catherine “Tina” Nickerson; two brothers-in-law, Gardner W. “Tucky” Holmes and Donald Holmes; five sisters-in-law, Lorraine, wife of Gillie Rose, Florence, Phyllis, Nina, and Anita Curcuru and many nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews. He was also predeceased by six brothers, Salvatore, John, Thomas, Libiro, Joseph, and his wife, Josephine, Philip and his wife, Katherine Curcuru.
His funeral service will be held on Friday morning in the Beechbrook Cemetery at 10:30 a.m. Visiting hours will be held on Thursday in the Pike-Grondin Funeral Home, 61 Middle Street, Gloucester from 3 – 7 p.m. Relatives and friends are cordially invited to attend. In lieu of flowers, expressions of sympathy may be made in his memory to the Hospice of the North Shore, 75 Sylvan St., Suite B-102, Danvers, MA 01923 or to The Carroll Center for the Blind, 770 Centre St., Newton, MA 02458 (www.carroll.org).