“How many men can say they’ve been doing a job like this for this long without any major injuries?” asked Curry in 2008. “I’ve been stabbed several times but nothing really life threatening,” he said then. “I’ve been shot at a couple of times, but never hit. I had a dog bite me once, and the dog died.”
Curry was a police officer in New Orleans, La., for his entire career. He started at the department in 1946, and stayed there. When 200 officers fled from hurricane Katrina, Curry was still working at the department, and stayed on duty, sleeping in a car in a Walmart parking lot for a month so he was close to the job. He was 80 years old at the time.
As other officers retired or went to desk jobs, Curry preferred to stay on the street, on patrol, just like always. And he stayed on the job, working the streets with the special rank of Sergeant-Major, until the day he died, on June 4 — making him the longest-serving police patrol officer known in the history of the United States, an active duty career of slightly more than 63 years. He was 84.
Update: The longest-serving at that time. See also Edward Thomas in Volume 6.