Harry Curley coached youth hockey in Camillus for 33 years

Harry Curley passed away peacefully on Tuesday, April 23, at the age of 93.

He was born on May 12, 1930, in Morristown, New Jersey to Hazel and Edward Curley.

Curley, his obituary said, “had a purposeful presence and a contagious smile, touching lives with steering words and a healing humor that hit their mark.”

After graduating from Rome Free Academy, where he excelled in academics and sports, in 1947, Curley served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War.

According to a 1998 profile in The Post-Standard, he attended New York University, Syracuse University and Onondaga Community College.

After his honorable discharge, he started a family with his “ever luvin’” wife Carolyn, who he married in 1954, in Westvale.

He had a 40-year career at Syracuse’s General Electric as an engineer and he spent his last few years at GE in Saudi Arabia, leading an operation installing radar systems which would prove beneficial during the Gulf War.

Curley spent most of his adult life coaching and mentoring youth players in his two most favorite sports, baseball and ice hockey.

It was on the ice, where Curley made his biggest impact.

He coached in the Camillus Youth Hockey Association (C.Y.H.A.) for 33 years, starting in 1972.

“I have never taken a bench penalty in more than 35 years of formal coaching,” he once told The Post-Standard. “I don’t think too many people in the world can say that.”

In 1998, Curley was instrumental in establishing the first girls’ hockey program in Central New York for the C.Y.H.A.

“There’s tremendous interest,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of girls come up to me and say they want to play.”

Curley enjoyed coaching this new team:

“Boys have a tendency to be little know-it-alls when they reach a certain age. Girls, for the most part, really pay attention. They really have the desire to learn.”

As a coach, Curley received several awards and recognitions over the years for his dedication and commitment, notably “The Tom Korpolinski Award” given by the New York Amateur Hockey Association in 2001 for being instrumental at the “Grass Roots” level during his years at the Camillus Youth Hockey Association. In 2007, “The Harry M. Curley Award” was created and given annually to “individuals who have provided outstanding service to the C.Y.H.A. and acted in the same spirit as Coach Curley so humbly did.”

“Coach Curley spent…