UNI's late 'first daughter' feted with expo
Deno and Jo Curris leave lasting legacy for late daughter who grew up here
CEDAR FALLS -- It's safe to say Constantine "Deno" Curris and his wife, Jo Hern Curris, left a big part of their hearts at the University of Northern Iowa, where Deno served as president for 12 years..
It's why they've put much of their hearts into a regular exhibition honoring their late daughter, who grew up here.
The Currises were back on campus in Cedar Falls last week for a reception marking the opening of the Elena Diane Curris Biennial Design Exhibition at the UNI Gallery of Art, in the Kamerick Art Building on campus.
Elena Diane Curris, who worked in public relations and development at California State University at Long Beach, passed away in late December 2015 at age 38.
"We honor the memory of our daughter, Elena Diane, who grew up on this campus, and whose passing remains a great sadness in our lives," Deno Curris said. "Her passion for the visual arts, especially graphic design, inspired our gift to the university," an endowment supporting the exhibition.
The exhibit is open to the public now through Nov. 15. It features commercial graphic design work by several UNI Department of Art alums working at firms and for clients in Minnesota and Iowa and beyond. It also features work by current UNI students. Details can be found at the link here.
"With the support of the UNI Foundation, we established this endowment to remember our daughter, but just as importantly, to enhance the national reputation of the graphic design program, and indeed all departments, here at UNI" Deno Curris said.
The exhibit began in 2018 and it's been held every other year since then, supported by the Curris family and private donations. In the 2020-21 academic year, during the coronavirus pandemic when an in-person exhibit was not possible, the event was made a competition among middle and high school students and winners were displayed online.
Elena Curris attended UNI's Malcolm Price Laboratory School during most of the years her father was president, from 1983 to 1995, through 10th grade at the lab school's Northern University High School.
She graduated from high school at The American School in Switzerland (TASIS) in Staines, England, received associate's and bachelor's degrees, respectively, from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City and the University of Alabama. She worked for a fashion magazine and agency prior to her job at Cal State Long Beach, where she was involved in a number of civic and business organizations.
Current UNI President Mark Nook indicated Elena’s parents also shared a flair for aesthetics as it applied to the appearance of the UNI campus.
"Deno had an eye for making this campus much, much more beautiful, and he had an eye for what it would take to attract people to this campus," Nook said. "Deno and Jo had a tremendous impact on this entire campus and talked often about their time here and what it meant to their entire family," including Elena and their son Robert, a retired U.S. Army colonel.
The Currises’ time at UNI was the longest stay of any presidential assignment in Deno's academic career.
A native of Lexington, Ky, he was president at Murray State University in Kentucky from 1973-83. He left UNI to serve as president of Clemson University in South Carolina from 1994-99.
He then served nine years as president of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities in Washington, D.C. until his retirement in 2008, after which the Currises returned in Kentucky. Jo Curris had a career as a tax attorney.
UNI's business building was dedicated and named for Curris in 1998.
A poignant part of the exhibit is a self portrait Elena made of herself when she was six years old as part of a class assignment for her first grade teacher at Price Lab, Judy Finkelstein.
"She paid attention to detail and was most excited to include the words displayed on the shirt she was wearing that day," Finkelstein wrote. Little Elena made several trips back and forth to a mirror in an adjacent bathroom to sketch the words, "I had my birthday party at McDonald's" on the shirt in the sketch.
Elena's self portrait, and Finkelstein's account of how she did it, is front and center at the entrance to the exhibit with a photo of Elena as an adult.
"I'm going to visit my little girl now," Jo Curris said at the exhibit opening, walking toward her daughter’s childhood work. "It's what this is all about."
Pat Kinney is a freelance writer and former longtime news staffer with the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier and, prior to that, several years at the Ames Tribune. He is currently an oral historian with the Grout Museum District in Waterloo. His “View from the Cedar Valley” column is part of “Iowa Writers Collaborative,” a collection of news and opinion writers from around the state who previously and currently work with a host of Iowa newspapers, news organizations and other publications. They are listed below. Clink on the links to check them out, subscribe for free - and, if you believe in the value of quality journalism, support this column and/or any of theirs with a paid subscription .
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