In Memoriam

James Bernard McCurley, Jr.

Jim McCurley died on May 27, 2024, in Kensington, MD, due to complications from a fall. No obituary was published. As a remembrance, here is the essay he wrote for our 25th Reunion Book, published in 1989.

Essay from 25th Reunion Book

by Jim McCurley

May 1989

Jim McCurley
1964 Yale graduation

My conversion to Orthodox Christianity in 1985 has permitted me to go forward in life without being weighted down with guilt about past wrongs / mistakes. It has meant giving up some things, but it has also meant peace of mind and a sense of community in the “diaspora” of the “white” Russian Orthodox Church in Exile. My history studies have made my international travels (Southeast Asia, France, Ireland, and Austria) more interesting and pleasant.

My memberships in some of the more exclusive American hereditary societies have meant association and friendship with many fine people. I share the results of my extensive genealogical research and correspondence with near and distant cousins in America and Europe. I couldn’t get married, because I have had nothing to offer financially. I believe in Christian civilization, civil liberties, capitalist welfare-statism, and constitutional monarchy. I also became a Democrat in 1985.

Although I am sincere, honest, and kind, I am tactless, and somewhat of a curmudgeon (humorous, not bitter). Since 1980 I believe that the United States has been throwing itself back into the nineteenth century, with a façade of strength but actual weakness, division, ineffectiveness, and bankruptcy (with pride and meanness).

My own most difficult experiences have been:

1. 1975, evacuation from South Vietnam followed by a year of unemployment;
2. 1984-1985, falling in love and having it “blow up.”

I have been listed in Who’s Who in American Law, 2nd edition, 1979, and in Hereditary Register, 1975-present.