Denzil Carl "Sonny" Currie

Denzil Carl Currie of Thornton was ushered home, at Groesbeck LTC on Thursday, March 18, 2021, at age 90.     He was known to friends as Carl and to all the family as “Sonny”.

Visitation will be held from 3:00-5:00 P.M. on Saturday, March 20, 2021 in the Groesbeck Funeral Home Chapel, 1215 E. Yeagua St., Groesbeck, TX.

Funeral services will be held at 11:00 A.M. on Sunday, March 21, 2021 in the Holly Church at Ridge, TX.  Burial will follow in the Holly Cemetery, with Masonic services and military honors.

Carl was born October 10, 1930 to Carl Carnealus Currie and Molly Almeda Perkins Currie at Ridge, TX.   The family moved to Pasadena, where he graduated from high school.  Carl wanted to enlist in the U. S. Army to the extent that he lied about his age to enter at age seventeen.   He served in the Berlin airlift and served during the Korean War, starting as a jeep mechanic, then as an airplane mechanic, moving up to crew chief.   He transferred to the new U. S. Air Corps, which eventually became the U. S. Air Force.    

While serving in the Air Force, Carl was united in marriage with Joan James on July 1, 1955 at Ellington Air Force Base in South Houston and their life together involved travels and life in many different homes.

Carl was not one to sit around idle on base, so he involved the other service men in car washes to keep them busy and out of trouble.  After serving as crew chief he was appointed as attaché to the ambassador stationed in Afghanistan.  Joan and their first son, Danny, at six weeks old, moved to Afghanistan also, and a daughter Sheereny was born in Afghanistan.  A son, Philip was born in Virginia after they returned to the U.S.

They moved to Florida, and then wanting to change locations, Carl volunteered to work in cryptology, and they moved to Washington, D.C.   He worked on the installation of cryptograph machines all over the world, while Joan maintained the home and raised the children in Arlington, VA.  Carl was highly talented with natural skills and could adapt to anywhere he was located and any job he undertook.   He received an accommodation from NASA for helping develop one of the first computerized tracking devices of satellites.  He continued work in cryptology and computers until he retired from the Pentagon in 1967.

Although Carl was very skilled in working with computers, he did not allow them in their house, in those years, feeling they were too addictive.  Carl and Joan bought property in 1972 at Oletha and worked there on holidays and weekends when time allowed.   

After he retired from the Air Force, he went to work for a computer company, UNIVAC in Pennsylvania, where they lived until moving to Dallas in the seventies.      He then went to work for Data Point in San Antonio, and after he semi-retired, they called him back to do a port venture with a dignitary in Saudia Arabia to set up a computer company there.  He and Joan lived there, among the local people where they had to observe the local customs.   Data Point then offered him the position of head of international sales, and he and his wife moved to England for two years, living close to Windsor Castle.   Daughter, Sheereny and husband PeeWee and her two sons had the pleasure of spending two weeks with them in England.   Also, Carl was able to visit son Philip who was stationed at an Air Force base in Italy.

Carl retired in 1986 and they moved back to San Antonio while he was building their two-story log home at Oletha, doing the work himself.    Carl raised goats, chickens, guineas, peacocks, pheasants, cattle, and gardens at Oletha, and he also stayed busy rebuilding computers.

Carl was a member of Masonic Lodge #486 of Thornton and the Kosse Lodge #233.  He had served as Worshipful Master at both lodges and received his “65-year” presentation in 2019.    He was a 32^nd. Degree Scottish Rite Mason, and he also was a member of the Order of the Eastern Star, #46 of Thornton/ #810 of Groesbeck, along with his wife.

Carl (“Sonny”) was preceded in death by his parents; brother, William Currie; brother Bobby Currie; and wife, Joan Currie in 2015.

He is survived by his daughter and son-in-law, Linda and Gerald Carter of Lake Limestone; daughter, Jill Currie of Fort Worth; son Daniel “Danny” Currie of Oletha; daughter and son-in-law, Sheereny Prichard and husband Bernard Tippie of Oletha; and son, Philip Currie of Oletha; six grandchildren and eight great grandchildren.    He is also survived by his brother and sister-in-law, Fred and Hellen Currie of Mexia; sister, Maggie McCleskey of T or C, New Mexico; sister, Dorthea Coe of Pasadena; and sister-in-law, Kitty Currie of Trinity, as well as nieces and nephews.