Archives West Finding Aid

George H. Curtis, a prominent political figure in Idaho during the 1930s-1940s, was born April 24, 1884 in Ontario, Canada—the eldest son of British immigrants. In 1887, when Curtis was two-years-old the family moved to Idaho. He attended Boise High School and later went on to the University of Idaho where he became one of Idaho’s first Rhodes Scholars in 1908.

After returning from Oxford, Curtis taught at Boise High School. His first political success soon followed in 1916 when he was elected to the Idaho State Senate as a Democrat from the overwhelmingly Republican Ada County.

Curtis joined the Army in 1918 and was in officer training school when WWI ended. After the war, he returned to education to teach at a teachers college in Albion, Idaho. Afterward, he served as both principal and superintendent of schools in several Idaho towns between 1920 and 1930.

In 1922, Curtis married Donna Marie Goodman at Rupert, Idaho. The couple had two children, Ruth Marie Curtis and Henry Goodman Curtis. Marie died in 1950 and Curtis married Mabel Brose Hill in December 1951.

In 1930, Curtis returned to the family farm when his father became ill. His return to the Boise farm also marked his return to politics. Curtis was a strong supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and was consistently seen as an “eloquent spokesmen for liberalism” in the traditionally conservative state of Idaho. During his career, he often found himself a “notorious and highly publicized” figure.

In 1932, he was elected to the Idaho Legislature during the Roosevelt sweep that carried many Democrats into office. A major spokesperson for the Idaho legislature’s liberal members, he was re-elected to the legislature in 1934 and 1936. In 1938, Curtis became Idaho’s Secretary of State and was re-elected to that office in 1940 and 1942. In 1944, Curtis ran for governor, but was defeated in the Democratic primary by Charles C. Gossett.

According to his son, Henry, controversy arose during his Curtis’s political career over the legality of residing on a small farm outside Boise city limits instead of “at” the capitol as interpreted in Idaho State Constitution. A controversy questioning his U.S. citizenship also arose since Curtis was born in Canada and became a citizen after his father was naturalized as a U.S. citizen.

Curtis supported the New Deal, and according to his obituary, was one of the few political leaders in Idaho who fought for the Albeni Falls Dam on the Pend Oreille River. He also proposed the development of the Idaho State Department of Labor and the Department of Commerce and Development. Curtis made many critical and controversial decisions during his time serving on the Idaho Board of Pardons, which he was founder.

Upon retirement, Curtis returned to Ada County to teach in rural schools and continued to campaign for the Democratic Party in Ada County. He died in Boise, Idaho, at the age of 78 on December 11, 1963.

Biographical information in this section was obtained from Curtis’s obituary.