Walter Curley recalls an eclectic career's successes

On Weds., Jan. 17, Walter Curley, SY '44, held a Saybrook Master's Tea. Curley led a fascinating and adventurous life, remarkable for a wide range of pursuits and for the success with which he performed them. His accumulated achievements and experiences doubtless embody the aspirations many Yalies today hold for their futures.

COURTESY SHAREHOLDER.COM Former ambassador to Ireland and France Walter Curley, SY '44.

After graduating from Yale during World War II, Curley accepted commission as a Marine Corps officer and served in the Pacific arena. At the war's conclusion, he went on to Harvard Business School, after which he entered the oil industry. Caltech Oil Company sent him and his family to Madrass, India, where he worked for four years, at the end of which he accepted another post, this time in Turin, Italy, for another four years.

He returned to New York and was recruited by another oil company that ushered him into the "dazzling world of venture capitalism." In 1960, with the help of nine partners, he launched what was, according to Curley, the first venture capital firm, J.H. Whitney.

In 1970, John Lindsey, then mayor of New York, requested Curley's services in municipal government. The government post developed into a stepping stone to becoming ambassador to Ireland during President Gerald Ford's term. The ambassadorship kept him in Ireland from 1974-79, at which point he returned to New York to establish his own venture capital firm. In 1989, longtime friend and then-president George Bush, DC '48, offered him the ambassadorship to France, a post he held during the Gulf War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of communism, and the disintegration of the Eastern Bloc. In 1994, Curley returned to the world of venture capitalism.

Most intriguing about Curley's life is his success in two very different endeavors—the private business sector and the public sphere. Yet he attributes his prowess in both fields precisely to this "mixture of business and public [service]." For him, they formed a "seductively synergistic relationship and worked well together," each providing unique insight into his approach to life. He came to appreciate "the reality of experience in business," often a harsh lesson. "The most important factor of business life is its cut and thrust, the pragmatism of it," Curley said. From his experiences in government he came to understand that "politics has a surreal quality [and] is allergic to practicality."

Curley said that he learned to "look at public policy practically," a skill crucial to maintaining budgets, among other things. His dealings with "alien and subsidiary concepts in most governments" proved invaluable to dealing with the conflicting interests of other businesses. Above all, the central tenet that afforded coherence to the two tracks of his life was "a firm belief in profit motive. This business concept was important to me as CEO of an embassy."

The cutthroat reality of business acquainted him with "the dynamic of risk and reward," while his roles as public servant introduced him to the importance of "help and planning," he said. "The business orientation allowed me to bring an essential reality to prickly foreign matters," he said, carefully evading any elaboration on what those matters were. And his experience with government also helped in the private sector. Curley's earliest experiences as a public servant and employee of the government came during his stint as an officer in the Marine Corps, an experience that he claims caused his life to diverge from the probable course of many current Yalies. "There were 860 freshmen in my class. Thirty-six were killed, and a lot more were badly wounded. We had a time lag between when we graduated and the end of the war when we could decide what we were doing. We didn't have to face the daunting decision you will have to face. We discarded our blazers and put on another uniform in WWII. We did what we were told to do. War relieved us of our responsibility to ourselves," he observed.

Curley stated that his military career shaped his outlook on life. "I learned the importance of discipline, of being able to take orders as well as give them. I learned the usefulness of authority and the utility of power in the Marine Corps—and the feeling of being utterly powerless," he said. He recalled his experiences in the Pacific, particularly in China with Chiang Kai-Shek, recounting with veritable lust the sense of "dealing with vast, raw power. Power—the inimitable, unmistakable aroma of power. I learned for the first time of death, sudden and shameless extinction. That endures."

Years later, during his stint in Ireland, Curley learned more difficult lessons of reality when a friend, the British ambassador to Ireland, was assassinated by the Irish Republican Army. He summed up his reaction to the incident by saying, "It provided me broader intellectual horizons to deal with life."

His military experience prepared him well for diplomatic responsibilities. In the Marines, he "developed an engrossing sense of concept of country—an anchor and reference point in business and diplomacy."

Ultimately, his experiences united practically with an appreciation of macromanagement, which he defined as "the ability to influence events on a large scale." The hint of power once again elicited from him a certain passion. "The prudent use of power to achieve ends..." his voice trailed off, "The power factor is a constant ingredient. The subtle fragrance of power is always there. Indeed, it is the objective of foreign policy to achieve a balance of this power."

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