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Ring legend Roy Jones was in tears. Former HBO boxing boss Lou DiBella was despondent. [details]
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sad, i met him before about some years back, we traded tickets so to speak, i met him at my work at an R&B concert, and didn't know who he was, but i got to talking with him because he was wearing some HBO gear and we started talking about boxing and i got him front row tickets and he got me tickets two mosley vs winky 2 and a few t-shirts.
i always remembered him because both of us went out of our ways to do something for a complete stranger............ -
RIP Artie Curry. Very sad.Comment
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was he hbos matchmaker i never heard of the guyComment
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very sad...RIPComment
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For people who don't him, or don't know much about him.
By Thomas Hauser
Arthur Curry, one of the best people in or out of boxing, died suddenly on Wednesday. The following article, written in 1999, is posted in his memory.
* * *
Arthur Curry was born in Harlem on February 18, 1960. His life began in a single-parent home with his mother and two older sisters. A younger brother was born in 1962.
“I have no idea what my mother did,” Curry says, reflecting on his early childhood. “She was just a lady I saw from time to time. And I met my father once in my life, when I was in a foster home.”
When Arthur was four, he and his siblings were placed in separate foster care facilities. Two years later, his natural mother was brutally murdered. Not long after that, his father drank himself to death.
For twelve years, Arthur Sheppard [which was his name as a child] moved from home to home. Looking back, he recalls, “I was in group homes; I lived with families; I stayed with friends. There was a lot of pain. But one thing I remember was, every summer, the foster agency sent us to a summer camp, where they had arts and crafts, chess, canoeing, activities like that. And each year, that camp gave me a vision of hope; a belief that life could be better than what I was going through. So even at a young age, I felt there was a better way.”
The defining moment for Arthur Sheppard came at age sixteen. A jazz singer named Edward Curry and his wife Lise (an investment advisor) wanted to adopt a newborn child. But Arthur’s social worker prevailed upon them to adopt Arthur.
“For the first time in my life,” Curry remembers, “there was someone who had confidence in me and believed in me. I experienced love for the first time, and everything changed. Without my new parents, I don’t know what would have happened to me. Before them, I’d been in constant pain. I’d always felt that I had an inner beauty, but I’d never had a foundation to build on. There was so much I had to make up for, and they opened a whole new world for me. School had always been a matter of survival; that’s all. But they taught me to rededicate myself. I graduated from high school. Then I enrolled at Fashion Institute of Technology, because I’d always been interested in art. And when I turned twenty-one, I changed my name to Curry. That was important; it erased a lot of negatives. I wanted to honor my parents, and I was proud to be a Curry.”
At age twenty, Arthur Curry took a parttime job in the mailroom at what was then Time-Life. Three years later, Curt Viebranz [a Time-Life Vice President] took a mentoring interest in the soft-spoken young man who delivered his mail and suggested he move to the company’s art department, where Curry spent the next six years. In 1989, at the suggestion of Seth Abraham, he moved to HBO Sports as a production assistant. “I had great teachers at HBO,” Curry acknowledges. “Seth Abraham, Janet Indelli, Lou DiBella. They gave their heart and soul to educate me.”
In 1996, Curry assumed his present position as Manager of HBO’s Sports Talent Relations. Officially, his primary responsibility is described in the corporate manual as “building and maintaining relationships with boxers, support staff, and entourage.” Beyond that, he acts as a goodwill ambassador for HBO at various charity events, is actively involved in HBO’s “Reaching Beyond The Ring” community program, serves on the board of directors of the Retired Boxers Foundation, and keeps his finger in creative design. But it’s in his friendships with boxers that Curry shines most brightly.
“Very few people understand how much Artie does for the fighters,” says Lou DiBella. “To the fighters, Artie’s not a suit; he’s their friend. He cares deeply about them and really tries to find out what they need. Even though he works for HBO, they know he has their best interests at heart.”
Curry describes his role as follows: “I’m the hands-on guy with the fighters. Whatever they need, I’m there for them. Part of it is entertainment; taking them to ballgames, shooting pool. But it’s also listening to them, helping them. I’ve been a fighter all my life, so I understand these guys. I’m real with people all the time, so the people who know me trust me. That’s the strength of my position.”
Curry’s work intensifies in the days before an HBO bout. That’s when fighters are most on edge, their needs are greatest, and they’re likely to be a bit su****ious of someone who’s friendly with the other side. “I’ve learned to stand back,” Arthur says, explaining how he handles the tensions of those times. “The guys know I’m there if they want me, but I don’t force myself on them. I go into both dressing rooms before and after the fight. During the fight, I don’t root for either guy. When you care about both fighters, you just have to look at it as a business and hope that no one gets hurt. The most difficult fight for me to watch was Arturo Gatti against against Ivan Robinson; both times. And there’s a special place in my heart for Roy Jones. I love Roy; I can see myself growing old with him. But there’s so many guys I care about that I don’t want to start naming names, because I’m sure I’d forget a name and leave someone out.”
Roy Jones, for his part, responds in kind, saying, “Artie Curry is one of the best friends a person could have. He does his job. He’s a true professional. But he’s a whole lot more than that. Sometimes, when it feels like the whole world is against me, Artie will say, ‘Look, brother; keep your head high; do what’s right and everything will be okay.’ And he tells me what he thinks is right, whether or not he agrees with me, which is the way friends should be. Artie is never this way today and another way tomorrow. There’s no slippin’ and slidin’, no games; just straight-up real honesty. The man is family. Artie Curry is a blessing to me.”
So that’s Arthur Curry. A remarkable man; and a very lucky man, because he is able to pursue causes he’s passionate about and follow the rhythms of his heart. He is embraced by some of the finest athletes in the world, and he regards them as some of the finest people in the world. Their relationship is more than business. They’re friends.
There are a lot of negatives in professional boxing. Arthur Curry is on the positive side of the ledger.Comment
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Am sure Roy Jones Jr will be very sad about his passing, he treated him like family. As will many other fighters and co workers.Comment
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this gentleman was actually friends with artie curry
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One of the good guys. RIP.Comment
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