Claude Alton Curtis of Hondo, age 87, passed away Wednesday, March 20, 2024.

Born April 19, 1936, in Shreveport, LA, he was the son of Alton Louise Curtis and Jewel C. Bilbray Curtis.

In 1958 Claude married Shirley Parkerson and they had two sons, Steve and Greg. In 1983, he married Debby Herring and they had a son, Chase, in 1987.

Claude was a "tire man", working in the tire retreading/casings business for 60 years. Beginning with money he earned from his paper route, he bought old tires and resold them. He started his business, Curtis Tire and Rubber, in the back of his truck and grew it to a multi-million dollar empire. This later grew into owning his own plane and having three cap shops nationwide.

Around 1975, Claude moved the business to Texas but the crash of 1980 was hard on business and he started over, forming Road and Machine Tire. He stayed in the business in Texas through 2018 when he retired and moved to the Hill Country near Hondo, TX.

A workaholic, he loved putting a deal together and lived for the art of the deal.

He also liked to play as hard as he worked. He loved fishing with his sons and hunting for elk in the Wyoming mountains.

He was a man of God, strong in his Christian faith, especially in hard times, and he reared his sons with a fairly iron fist – right was right and wrong was wrong – but he would do anything he could, any time, for his sons.

Claude was preceded in death by his parents and his first wife, Shirley Parkerson Curtis.

He is survived by his sons, Steve (Karen) Curtis, Greg Curtis (Debbie) and Chase Curtis (Shealynn); grandchildren, Kristen Jackson, Erin Curtis and Codie Curtis; brother, Gary Curtis; sister, Jan Ammons; and his former wife, Debbie Curtis.

Graveside service will be at 10 a.m., Monday, March 25, 2024, at Hondo Cemetery, Oakwood Annex.

GUINN-HORGER