Stephen Curran, a psychologist who specialized in police departments and natural disasters, died of pancreatic cancer July 4 at home in Cockeysville. He was 74. Stephen Francis Curran was born in Baltimore in 1950 and grew up in the Campus Hills community near Towson as the middle of five siblings.
His father, Raymond Curran, was a mortician and funeral home director, and his mother, Virginia, was a homemaker. Growing up he was coached in youth football by former Baltimore Colt Gino Marchetti, a Pro Football Hall of Famer, and Joe Campanella, and went door to door in December selling Christmas trees. He graduated from Towson Catholic High School in 1968 and Mount St.
Mary’s University in 1972, where he studied psychology and sang in the glee club. Mary Claire Curran, a daughter, said Mr. Curran’s father’s work as a mortician, which sometimes involved retrieving dead bodies from the scenes of drunken-driving crashes, sparked his interest in the brain and how it works.
“He was always so calm under pressure,” Mary Claire Curran said. Roseann Curran, his wife, said the two first met at a mixer at Mount St. Mary’s and went a year without seeing each other again before reconnecting at a Vietnam War protest.
The two were married in Towson in June 1974 and celebrated their 50th anniversary this year. “We were dating other people when we first met,” Roseann Curran said. “The next year things had changed.
” Mr. Curran earned a master’s degree from what was then Loyola College in Baltimore and a Ph.D.
from the University of Maryland, College Park in 1977. In the late 1970s he opened a psychology practice in Baltimore after a stint at an opioid clinic in Baltimore, where he advocated for the use of Naltrexone to treat addiction. He was a pioneer in the specialty of police psychology and contracted with the Maryland State Police and other local agencies across the state to counsel officers after traumatic events.
He was also a strong proponent of more pre-employment psychological screenings for police officers, a topic he explored in his 2020 book, “Busted! Police and Public Safety Ethical Decision-Making.” “A lot of stuff he was talking about in the ’70s, like Naltrexone or mental health or screening cops, are policies people are still talking about and using today,” Mary Claire Curran said. Mr.
Curran helped develop disaster mental health programs for the American Red Cross, and in 1994 he flew to Los Angeles in the immediate aftermath of the Northridge earthquake, often recounting how an aftershock tossed him from his bed on the first night. He also enlisted in the Maryland National Guard and helped the organization develop counseling practices and mental health services. Related Articles “It didn’t matter if it was an earthquake or soldiers coming home from war or a shooting or any traumatic accident scene, he just wanted to be there to help people,” son Brendan Curran, a former Army officer, said.
“He also made sure to always visit me wherever I was stationed. Arizona, Louisiana, Missouri and many places in between. He was always there.
” Outside work Mr. Curran sang and stalked out prime beach space in Ocean City. He loved the Orioles and attended the Ravens’ 2013 Super Bowl win over the San Francisco 49ers in New Orleans.
As a proud Irish Catholic, he was president of a local branch of the Ancient Order of Hibernians. Mr. Curran, who played catcher in high school, also liked baseball metaphors.
“He said focus on lots of singles and doubles and an occasional triple,” Roseann Curran said. “You don’t have to hit home runs to be a success.” He is survived by his wife, Roseann Maher Curran, of Cockeysville; his sister, Colleen Curran Bromwell, of Cambridge, Maryland; his son, Brendan Curran, of Annapolis; his daughters, Bridget de Leon, of Timonium, and Mary Claire Curran, of New York; and three grandchildren.
Services were scheduled for Saturday at the Church of the Nativity in Timonium..
