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between Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston for boxing's World
Heavyweight Championship were among the most anticipated,
watched and controversial fights in the sport's history. Sports
Illustrated magazine named their first meeting, the Liston-Clay
fight (Ali had not yet changed his name from Cassius Clay), as
the fourth greatest sports moment of the twentieth century ...
and Curran was there, he can be seen ringside in the background.

It is all in the name ... Robert E. J. Curran, Sr.,

and for what does the E. J. stand (I had to ask)? "Robert Emmet
Joseph Curran after Robert Emmet, (born 1778, Dublin-died
Sept. 20, 1803, Dublin), who was an Irish nationalist leader who
inspired the abortive uprising of 1803. Emmet is remembered
as a romantic hero of Irish lost causes. Joseph was my
confirmation name given to me by the nuns of the Order of Saint
Joseph. They insisted that my name be that of a Saint, hence
Joseph." Robert E. J. Curran, Sr., was the third of four children
born to his father, the Honorable Thomas A. Curran, a Delaware
County Common Pleas Court judge who passed in 1967. His
mother, Grace McClatchy, the daughter of John H. McClatchy,
who in the 1920s, built the McClatchy Building on 69th Street
in Upper Darby, PA. It was famous in its time for the detail
work, the stained glass front, the lighting, and the restaurant on
the top floor. It was the main office of the McClatchy Building
Corporation, later known as 69th Street Building Corporation.

"Justice is the greatest concern of man on earth" ...

Lawyers play many vital roles on the world's stage but none
more important than preserving, protecting and perpetuating the
rights of citizens, both individual and business. Justice certainly
has been of great concern to Robert E.J. Curran, Sr., Esquire,
of Delaware County, and to his father before him, and to his
son who follows. "My father was a fine man, very successful,
and decent to the lawyers. He made sure every new lawyer
would win their first case to get a good start." The Currans are
one of three generations of practicing attorneys like the Toal,
McGovern, and Jones families.
Curran attended the Malvern Preparatory School and,
after receiving a bachelor's degree from Washington & Lee
University (60th Class Reunion in November, 2017), he earned
a J.D. from the Temple University Law School. Curran started
in the practice of law in 1961, and he served his preceptorship
under Judge E. Wallace Chadwick (January 17, 1884 -
August 18, 1969), a Republican member of the U.S. House of
Representatives from Pennsylvania and president judge of the
Delaware County Orphan's Court in 1945. "A very prestigious
appointment" ... In 1954, Chadwick was named chief counsel
of the special Senate committee to study censure charges against
Senator Joseph McCarthy.
Curran currently practices with his son, Robert E.J.
Curran, Jr., on 8 West Front Street in Media. In 1962, he was
a founding partner of the firm Kassab, Cherry, Curran and
Archbold on 5th and Welsh streets in Chester, which later
relocated to Media, PA. In 1972, "The greatest role I ever
had" ... Curran was appointed the United States Attorney for
the Eastern District of Pennsylvania by President Richard M.
Nixon and served until April 30, 1976. During his term as
United States Attorney, he was appointed to and served on

the General's Advisory Committee. In 1967 and 1968, Mr.
Curran was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention for the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In that capacity, he was cochairman of the subcommittee on Incompatible Activities of
Judges, Their Suspension, Removal, Discipline and Compulsory
Retirement (Committee on Judiciary). From 1979 until 1984,
he served as the chairman of the Criminal Justice Act Selection
Committee for the Federal District Court in the Eastern District
of Pennsylvania. Curran served as Chairman of the Judicial
Conduct Board from 1996 to 2000 and was subsequently
appointed to the Supreme Court Lawyers Disciplinary Board
from 2000 to 2008. Eventually, he assumed the role of President
Judge for the Court of Judicial Discipline of Pennsylvania. He
was also a former solicitor for the Sheriff of Delaware County,
the Delaware County Housing Authority, the Delaware County
Airport Authority, the Delaware County Association of Police
Chiefs, RDC Inc., and the Aronimink Golf Club. Mr. Curran
has lectured in law at the Temple University Law School and
is a former officer of the Federal Bar Association (Philadelphia
Chapter). He also served as a Special Attorney General for
the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Justice, in
Delaware County from 1963 through 1971. Curran is admitted
to the bar before all Pennsylvania Courts, the Court of Appeals
for the Third Circuit of the United States, and the United States
Supreme Court.

Robert E. J. Curran, Sr., Esq., a delegate to the
Constitutional Convention for the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania, from 1967-1968. Pennsylvania held

a historic convention to revise its state Constitution. Initially
enacted in 1776 following the Declaration of Independence, the
Pennsylvania Constitution has undergone numerous revisions
as necessitated by changing times and political circumstances
in the Commonwealth. Some highlights of those constitutional
revisions are:
* 1790 - The 1790 convention created a bicameral state
legislature and a single executive in the form of a governor.
* 1837 - The 1837 convention created a mechanism by
which the constitution could be amended and also laid
the groundwork for a public education system in the
Commonwealth.

* 1882-1883 - The 1882-1883 convention increased the
number of representatives in the state Assembly and Senate,
increased the majority needed to pass legislation, and
introduced the idea of holding a limited convention to change
certain aspects of the state constitution.
By the 1950s and 1960s, numerous amendments had been
proposed and passed, but there was a call for establishing a
convention to modernize the constitution. The process of
developing and convening a constitutional convention lasted
nearly a decade. Finally, the voters of Pennsylvania approved
the calling of a convention, which convened on December 1,
1967, and ended on February 29, 1968.
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