Robert "Bobby" Curran

Robert "Bobby" Curran died in his sleep on Friday, 30 October 2026, at his home in Original Northwood, Baltimore, aged 76. His brother, former Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr., confirmed the death to The Baltimore Banner. No specific medical cause was made public.

He was survived by his wife, Janice Vetter, his brother Joseph and many nieces and nephews. Martin O'Malley paid tribute to his kind heart and his courage in pushing through the smoking ban when it was unpopular. Visitation and a memorial service were arranged for the morning of Friday, 6 November 2026, at Ruck Towson Funeral Home on York Road in Towson.

Robert Walter Curran was born in Baltimore on 17 July 1950, the youngest of the four children of Catherine Mary (Clark) Curran and J. Joseph Curran Sr., who represented the city's Third District on the Baltimore City Council from 1953 to 1977. His siblings, Joseph Jr., Margaret and Martin "Mike", were all born in the 1930s, and his arrival was described by his brother Joseph as a happy surprise for the family.

He grew up in Original Northwood in Northeast Baltimore, in the house he would live in for the rest of his life. As a boy he kept a parakeet, played baseball and went ice skating, and he helped make campaign signs and knock on doors for his father and for his brother Joseph, who was first elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1958. He graduated from Loyola High School in 1968, spent a couple of years at Mount Saint Mary's College and then completed his studies at the Community College of Baltimore, now Baltimore City Community College.

Before entering elected office Curran worked for sixteen years at the Domino Sugar plant in South Baltimore as a quality control foreman, and he was a member of Local 692 of the Retail Clerks International Union. He served on the Baltimore City Democratic Central Committee from 1982 to 2018 and was vice chair of the Baltimore Democratic Party.

When his brother Mike Curran retired from the City Council in 1995, Bobby ran for the Third District seat and won, becoming the third member of the family to hold it. He served from December 1995 to December 2016. He chaired the Judiciary and Legislative Investigations Committee (2006 to 2007), the Executive Appointments Committee (2007 to 2010), the Health Committee (2010 to 2016) and the Labor Committee (2011 to 2016), and he was council vice president during 2007.

In October 2006 he introduced a bill to prohibit smoking in all restaurants and bars, which were then the only workplaces in Baltimore where employees were not protected from second-hand smoke by law. The ban passed and took effect in 2007, and the American Lung Association of Maryland gave him its Jack Lodge Award that year. He also worked with community groups and city and state agencies on the redevelopment of the former Memorial Stadium site, now home to a YMCA, a park and mixed-income retirement housing. He sat on the Environmental Control Board, the mayor's Anti-Animal Abuse Advisory Commission (2010 to 2016) and the city's Heroin Treatment and Prevention Task Force (2014 to 2016), and supported legislation to curb gun violence.

In 2015, after breaking several ribs and consulting his family, he announced that he would not seek a sixth term.

Curran married Janice Vetter in 1987, and the couple lived together in his childhood home in Original Northwood until his death. His funeral home obituary described him as much loved within his close-knit Irish Catholic family, with a great sense of humour and a manner that made him easy for constituents to approach. He was a dedicated fan of the Baltimore Orioles, Colts and Ravens. He was the uncle of Katie Curran O'Malley, a former Baltimore City District Court judge and wife of former Governor Martin O'Malley.

Curran is remembered above all for Baltimore's 2007 ban on smoking in bars and restaurants, a measure O'Malley said people now take for granted. Together with his father and brother Mike he helped keep a Curran in the Third District seat for most of six decades, and his brother Joseph summed up his approach to the job as going to the community meetings, finding out what was happening and working out which city services needed to be improved.