Curtis was born on his family's farm in Kearney County, Nebraska. He attended the public schools, and then attended Nebraska Wesleyan University. He studied law on his own and passed the bar exam. He began practicing law in his native county and served as its attorney from 1931 to 1934. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives from a Nebraska district in 1938 on a campaign to oppose the New Deal policies of President Franklin Roosevelt. Curtis served in the House from 1939 until 1954, being reelected every two years.
Curtis was loyal to the Republican Party's platform, particularly supporting its anticommunist stances and fiscal conservatism, which included opposition to social programs such as Roosevelt's New Deal and the Great Society programs of Lyndon Johnson. Curtis was a close ally of both Barry Goldwater and Richard Nixon. He served as floor leader during the 1964 nomination of Goldwater at the Republican National Convention. He supported Nixon's handling of the Vietnam War, and remained loyal to him even during the height of the Watergate scandals, during which Nixon was forced to resign as President, a position which few politicians even in the Republican Party took. Curtis served as chairman of the Senate Republican Conference from 1975 to 1979.
Following his retirement from the Senate, Curtis moved to Lincoln, Nebraska where he practiced law and gave occasional interviews to the media. Following his death in Lincoln of natural causes, he was praised on the Senate floor in a speech delivered by Strom Thurmond, a contemporary of Curtis's who was also elected to the Senate in 1954 and held conservative views.
Curtis was a leader in the successful efforts in 1965 and 1966 to prevent repeal of Section 14(b) of the Taft-Hartley Act, which outlawed the requirement of membership in a labor organization as a condition of employment in any state or territory where such a requirement is prohibited by law.
Curtis was a co-author of the Small Watershed Act of 1954, which authorized the Department of Agriculture with the Soil Conservation Districts to build projects which are too large for an individual farmer or an individual soil conservation district to manage alone.
Curtis worked to change the inequities so that benefits were extended to the self employed, including farmers, to public employees, including school teachers, and to members of the professions and the uniformed services.
The Curtis Institute of Music is a music school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that offers courses of study leading to a performance Diploma, Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in Opera, and Professional Studies Certificate in Opera.
It was originally established in 1924 by Mary Louise Curtis Bok, to some extent as a training ground for orchestral players to fill the ranks of the Philadelphia Orchestra, much like the Vienna Hochschule fur Musik and the Vienna Philharmonic, although pianists, singers, organists and composers were offered courses of study as well.
CURTIS INSTITUTE OF MUSIC [Curtis Institute of Music] in Philadelphia; coeducational; founded 1924 by Mary Louise Curtis Bok (later married to Efrem Zimbalist) and named for her father, Cyrus Curtis.
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