Cyrus Hermann Kotzschmar Curtis

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Cyrus Hermann Kotzschmar Curtis
Cyrus Curtis
Born	June 18, 1850(1850-06-18) Portland, Maine, U.S.
Died	June 7, 1933 (aged 82) Wyncote, Pennsylvania
Occupation	Publisher
Spouse	1. Louisa Knapp 2. Kate Stanwood Cutter Pillsbury
Children	Mary Louise Curtis Bok Zimbalist

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Cyrus Hermann Kotzschmar Curtis (b. June 18, 1850 - d. June 7, 1933) was a significant American publisher.

Curtis was born in Portland, Maine, and entered the publishing business there with a weekly newspaper. He founded the Philadelphia-based Curtis Publishing Company, which published the Ladies' Home Journal and the Saturday Evening Post, as well as several other magazines and newspapers. For a time his company Curtis-Martin Newspapers, Inc. owned the Public Ledger, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the New York Evening Post. He was also known for his philanthropy to hospitals, museums, and schools.

He obtained a pipe organ manufactured by the Austin Organ Company which had been displayed at the Philadelphia Sesquicentennial Exposition of 1926 and donated it to the University of Pennsylvania. It was built into Irvine Auditorium when the building was constructed and is known to this day as the Curtis Organ. It is one of the largest pipe organs in the world.^[1]

In the summer of 1932, Curtis suffered a heart attack while aboard his yacht, the Lyndonia. While recuperating at Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia, his second wife passed away suddenly. He remained in frail health until he died on June 7, 1933, several weeks before his 83rd birthday, and was interred in West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.^[2]