Kenneth M. Curtis

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Kenneth Merwin Curtis (born February 8, 1931) is an American attorney, politician, and diplomat from Maine. A member of the Democratic Party, he held several major public roles in Maine and the United States.

In Maine, Curtis served as Secretary of State from 1965 to 1966 and then as the 68th Governor of Maine from 1967 to 1975. As governor, he helped create Maine’s state university system by merging campuses in 1968, and in 1969 Maine adopted its first income tax. His administration supported environmental protection, including the creation of the Department of Environmental Protection, and he led efforts to reorganize state government into a cabinet system in 1972. He also pursued gun-control proposals and conservation measures. Curtis was the first Maine governor to serve two four-year terms.

After leaving the governorship, Curtis founded the Curtis Thaxter law firm in Portland in 1975. He later chaired the Democratic National Committee from 1977 to 1978. From 1979 to 1981, he served as the United States Ambassador to Canada, during the Iran hostage crisis, helping coordinate communications about American diplomats sheltered in Tehran and later rescued by the CIA.

Curtis also contributed to Maine education and industry as the 11th president of the Maine Maritime Academy from 1986 to 1994. He and his wife, Polly Brown, married in 1956 and had two daughters, Susan and Angela, both born with cystic fibrosis. Susan died in 1970 at age 11, and Angela died in 1996 at age 34. In response, the Susan L. Curtis Foundation and Camp Susan Curtis were established to help economically disadvantaged Maine children.

Educationally, Curtis earned a Bachelor of Science from the Maine Maritime Academy in 1952, a law degree (LLB) from the University of Maine, Portland in 1959, and an LL.D. from Bates College in 1981. He served in the U.S. Naval Reserve from 1953 to 1955, achieving the rank of lieutenant commander during the Korean War. Later in life, he and Polly semi-retired to Florida for two decades before returning to Maine, where they lived in Scarborough as of the early 2020s.