lit a candle 4h agoMy father lived three blocks from the old Memorial Stadium and used to send me newspaper clippings about what would replace it. I remember him calling in 2006, almost gleeful, to tell me a councilman named Curran had gotten the smoking ban through the bars. He said it like it was a personal victory. Strange to read tonight that the man behind both those stories just died at 76.
Their story
Robert W. Curran was an American Democratic politician from Baltimore who represented the city's Third District on the Baltimore City Council from 1995 to 2016. Born on 17 July 1950 in Baltimore to Catherine Mary (Clark) Curran and longtime councilman J. Joseph Curran Sr., he grew up in a family…
Robert W. Curran was an American Democratic politician from Baltimore who represented the city's Third District on the Baltimore City Council from 1995 to 2016. Born on 17 July 1950 in Baltimore to Catherine Mary (Clark) Curran and longtime councilman J. Joseph Curran Sr., he grew up in a family that became one of Maryland's best known political households. His brother J. Joseph Curran Jr. served as Maryland attorney general; another brother, Mike Curran, also sat on the city council; and his niece Katie O'Malley married future governor Martin O'Malley.
Curran attended Loyola High School, graduating in 1968, and later studied at Mount Saint Mary's College and the Community College of Baltimore. He entered the council in December 1995, succeeding his brother Mike in the Third District, and remained there for twenty-one years until 8 December 2016. During that span he served as vice chairman of the Baltimore City Council, chaired the Executive Appointments Committee, vice-chaired the Judiciary and Legislative Investigations Committee, and sat on the Budget and Appropriations Committee while chairing its Labor Subcommittee. Local coverage of his style described him as an old-school legislator who preferred patient negotiation to flashy confrontation and who delivered results for Northeast Baltimore neighborhoods.
Among his legislative marks, in October 2006 he introduced a bill to ban smoking in restaurants and bars, then the remaining workplaces in Baltimore without statutory protection from second-hand smoke. The measure passed and became city law, extending health protections that already covered most other workplaces. He also worked with community groups and city and state agencies on redevelopment of the former Memorial Stadium site, which later hosted a YMCA, a park and mixed-income retirement housing for East Baltimore residents who had long awaited a reuse plan for the landmark after the Orioles and Colts eras ended.
Curran was married to Janice Vetter. He died in his sleep on 30 October 2026 at the age of 76. Colleagues remembered him as a Baltimore councilman from a multi-generation political family who left concrete marks on public health rules and neighborhood redevelopment rather than on statewide office, and who kept faith with a district that had sent Currans to City Hall for decades.
Biography adapted from English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) and Maryland Manual / Baltimore City Council records cited there.
Photos
1Robert W. Curran in 2008
by People Forever
Your dad had good instincts, that ban changed a lot of restaurants here.