Josephine Elliott Clark-Curtiss

Josephine Elliott Clark-Curtiss, known as Josie to her family and friends, and Ma Joey to her grandchildren, lost her valiant battle against ovarian cancer on November 6, 2023, at home in Gainesville, Florida. She was surrounded by her husband, children, grandchildren, and the love of all her family and friends. Josie’s compassion and selfless love for others guided her entire life and career. Her grace and generosity was extended to family, friends, mentees, strangers, charities and causes throughout her life, and her impact will continue to live on through all those she has touched. Josie was born on March 29, 1946 in St Louis, Missouri to mother Josephine Watt Clark and father William Allan Clark. Josie graduated from Nerinx Hall High School, where she excelled academically and athletically, including playing varsity basketball all four years, and spent her summers with family in Saugatuck, Michigan playing tennis, swimming, and sailing. A devout Catholic, Josie was inspired in her youth by the examples of scientists and healers including Gregor Mendel, Dr. Tom Dooley, and Saint Damien of Molokai. She attended St Mary’s College, then the women’s college of Notre Dame, in South Bend, Indiana, and graduated in 1968 with a B.S. in Biological Sciences. After initially intending to become a medical doctor, she found her life’s calling in research. Josie’s long and illustrious career as a biomedical scientist began by striving to understand the genetic basis by which Mycobacterium leprae caused the disease of leprosy, hoping this would more effectively combat this disease, which her heroes Dr. Dooley and Father Damien had battled. Her early research was supported by the World Health Organization as well as the Damien Foundation. Josie’s research evolved over the years to also include the related microbes M. avium, which infects HIV+ patients, and M. tuberculosis, which causes the eponymous disease. Josie earned her Ph.D. at the Medical College of Georgia (now Augusta University). During her doctoral studies she was awarded a President’s Fellowship from the American Society of Microbiology, spent at the Medical College of Virginia (now Virginia Commonwealth University), where she was the first to isolate high molecular weight DNA by devising the means to disrupt the cell walls of bacterial species that had previously been refractory to disruption. Josie met her husband Roy Curtiss III when he visited to give a seminar and her Ph.D. advisor set up a meeting for them to talk about Josie’s research. She always recalled how intimidated she was, but they talked for hours, and would later find in each other a partner not just in life, but also in their lifelong efforts to improve public health and eradicate infectious diseases. Josie joined Roy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1973 for her postdoctoral study, and they married in 1976. Josie chose to raise a family while focusing full-time on research, rather than accept an academic appointment with teaching and administrative responsibilities that would pull her away from these efforts. In 1983 they moved to Washington University in St Louis, where Josie was on the research faculty in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, and where they raised their children Gregory Clark Curtiss, Eric Garth Curtiss, and Megan Kimberly Curtiss. In 2004 Josie and Roy moved to Arizona State University, where Josie not only continued her research at the Biodesign Institute’s Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology, but also initiated her teaching career as a full professor. In 2015, she departed ASU as an Emeritus Professor to embark on an appointment as a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Medicine at University of Florida, with a joint appointment in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, where she worked until her retirement at the end of 2022. Josie was the first person to obtain an NIH grant for genetic analysis of mycobacterial pathogens like M. leprae, and later M. avium and M. tuberculosis. She served for many years on the US-Japan Leprosy Panel, and her later career accomplishments also included serving as Chair of the Mycobacteriology Division of the American Society for Microbiology; speaking at countless universities, national, and international scientific meetings; serving on NIH grant and fellowship review panels and editorial boards of scientific journals; and becoming a member of the Albert Einstein Society of the National Academies of Sciences, Medicine, and Engineering. During her tenure at all four universities, Josie served as a mentor to many, including her graduate student & later lifelong friend and colleague William Jacobs, 18 postdoctoral scholars from all over the world, over 50 undergraduate research scholars, and numerous new faculty members. To all she mentored, Josie was a paragon of kindness, generosity, and nurturing support. Josie was predeceased by her parents, William Allan Clark and Josephine Watt Clark, and her brothers Stephen Clark (survived by wife Nuviah Shirazi) and Mark Clark (survived by wife Elizabeth). She is survived by her husband Roy Curtiss, sister Christine Fuller (husband Brooks), brothers Kenneth (Mary) Clark and David (Sandra) Clark, her three children Gregory (Nicole), Garth (Tina), and Megan; her three grandsons Waylon, Wyatt, and Findlay; her stepchildren Brian (Stephany Roscoe) and two children, Wayne (Rosemary) and their two children, Lynn Curtiss Gibson and her three children, and Roy IV and his three children; as well as her 9 nephews and 8 nieces. Josie chose a green burial to give herself back to the microbes she devoted her life to better understand. The ceremony will occur at Bellefontaine Cemetery in St Louis, after a funeral mass to be held at College Church on November 20, 2023 at 10 am. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that we honor Josie’s life’s work by donating to Doctors Without Borders, or contact the family for a full list of the many charities Josie supported.

Josephine Elliott Clark-Curtiss

March 29, 1946 - November 6, 2023