Curt was born on October 28, 1953, in Portland, Oregon, the youngest of six children. After his parents separated, he attended Portland Community College. He realized from that experience that he wanted to be in the food business as his life profession. “It was fun from the beginning… not like work” He subsequently attended the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, graduating in 1975, and went on to open his first restaurant in Ocean City, MD. He also worked with the Philip’s organization in Ocean City before being hired as private chef to Ethel Kennedy and her 11 children and to Eunice Kennedy Shriver and her five children. It was “a fascinating time, largely because of who they were and the attention focused on them.”

Curt later moved to Washington, DC, where he met his husband of 47 years, Richard Ellison. They moved to New Orleans, where Curt worked for the Brennan family and Cajun chef, Paul Proudhomme, to open Mr. B’s Bistro in the French Quarter in 1979. He also worked as chef at Ristorante Boccaccio in Covington, LA, owned by Carlos Marcello. Curt continued to work in the busy New Orleans food scene at the Royal Orleans Hotel, and then took a turn to open his own po’boy restaurant, Munchie Mansion, in the warehouse district of New Orleans.

In 1985 Curt was hired to re-open a fine dining restaurant, LeFleur’s in Jackson, Mississippi. He later worked as executive chef at a new restaurant, The Other Place, and at the Ramada Renaissance Hotel and Sheraton Regency Convention Hotel in Jackson. He also spent the summer of 1986 as executive chef of Le Bistro/Bayberry Inn, in Ocean Beach, Fire Island, NY.

Curt moved with his husband back to the Northwest in 1988, and worked at several restaurants and bars in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, the Encore Restaurant and Cadillac Grille/C.C.Attle’s, during the 1990s. He moved to the Rainier Beach neighborhood in South Seattle, and built a home for 35 years there with his husband.

For several years, Curt experienced heart difficulties and worked with cardiologists at UW Medicine. He experienced a stroke in 2022, and had subsequent difficulties related to heart failure and arrhythmia. After several hospitalizations, Curt was entered into home hospice care, and on December 4, 2025, he passed away at home with his husband by his side. He was 72.

Curt is survived by his husband, Richard Ellison, his sister, Kendra Stromberg, of Sterling, CO, his brother, David Stromberg, of Portland, OR, and nephews and nieces in Colorado, Oregon and California.

Curt was active in political organizations, for decades supporting LGBT+ organizations such as the Pride Foundation, Human Rights Campaign, Lambda Legal, and other groups supporting dignity for all, including the Southern Poverty Law Center. He and his husband have long supported the Pacific Northwest Ballet and the Seattle Symphony. He would be happy to be remembered by everyone working to restore a strong democracy and respect for all people in our country and worldwide.

Curt was greatly loved, and will be greatly missed.