Curtis Harmon Haire, Jr.

Memorial service for Curtis Harmon Haire, Jr., 75 of Lawton, will be at 2:00 p.m., Saturday, October 30, 2021 at Lawton Ritter Gray Funeral Home. Pastor Gary Pratt of Lawton First Assembly of God will be officiating. 

Curtis passed away Saturday, October 23, 2021 at McMahon-Tomlinson Nursing Home.

He was born September 21, 1946 to Curtis Haire, Sr. and Marguerite Murphy Haire. Curtis grew up with his parents and his sister, Sharron. His dad served in the Army so the family lived in various places including Germany. Curtis graduated from Lawton High School. He attended Cameron University and Oklahoma State University where he earned his master's degree in technical education and a minor in computer science. Curtis was in Advanced ROTC at Oklahoma State University. After college he went into the military. He was in the Signal Corps. He served at Ft. Sill, Ft. Gordon Georgia, and Korea. His rank was 1st Lieutenant. He left the Army to come home to help with his ailing mother. He started working at Northrop Aviation in computer systems. One assignment was to go to Iran to teach classes for two weeks. It was a dangerous job as Americans were being shot on site. After waiting almost two months, he finally had to come home. Curtis' friend, an Iranian cab driver, covered him up with a blanket on the floor and told him not to move. He took him to the airport. Curtis had to run to the plane and it lifted off quickly before he got shot. For several years after, he worked at Southwest Farm and Ranch in Lawton. He was a deacon at Western Hills Christian Church. The family moved to Greenville, Texas, where he worked for E Systems. Curtis was getting lots of experience in data systems. 

He worked for years for Lomas and Nettleton Mortgage Company, Dallas, where he was senior vice president for computer systems and data processing. At Shared Financial Systems, Dallas, he was vice president of marketing data systems where he wrote, developed software, and did training for financial systems operations. The family moved back to Lawton to be closer to his ailing father. Curtis became general manager of Pecan Valley Waterworks where he worked for his father-in-law, Harold Wilson. He also built homes in Pecan Valley. He was a member of Lawton First Assembly of God. Curtis and Kaye dated three years and were happily married 54 years and 10 months. They were married January 22, 1967, and celebrated a happy marriage. He loved Tricia and Chris so much and took such loving care of Kaye until his Parkinson's got so bad, he ended up in the nursing home. He so enjoyed spending time with his seven grandsons and granddaughter. Curtis and his passion for life was to serve Jesus Christ and help others. He had such a servant's heart. Curtis will be greatly missed, but we are so grateful he is in Glory now.

Curtis is survived by his wife, Lynda Kaye and their two children Patricia Haire, of Lawton, and Christopher Haire, and Brandi, of Duncan; his sister, Sharron Cooper and John of Houston, Texas; cousin, Diane Cates; grandchildren, Tyler Waggoner, Trevor Waggoner, Trenton Waggoner, Tori Waggoner, Adrian Haire, Zane Haire, Ian Haire, and Deklyn Haire; brothers in law and sisters in law, Dr. Gary Wilson and Nancy, of Edmond, Oklahoma and Dr. Rick Wilson and Loyce, of Denton, Texas, and Patti Rhea, of Lawton, Oklahoma; his nephews, Dan Wilson, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Mitchell Wilson, of Argyle, Texas, Bill Wilson, of Denver, Colorado, Jason Wilson, of Ashville, North Carolina, Jordan Rhea, of Midwest City, Oklahoma, and Jeff Rhea, of Houston, Texas; his nieces, Teri Johnson Thomas, of Edmond, Oklahoma, Kate Wilson Schwartz, of Pagosa Springs, Colorado and Jennifer Rhea, of Hoopstad, South Africa.

Curtis was preceded in death by his father, Curtis Haire, Sr.; his mother, Marguerite Haire; his father-in-law, Harold Wilson, and his mother-in-law, Dorothy Wilson. 

In lieu of flowers, donations in his memory may be made to the Scholarship Fund at Lawton Christian School where Curtis was on the board and volunteered for years to work on buildings and whatever was needed for the teachers and students.

A guest book and sympathy cards are available online at www.grayfuneral.com. 

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