Tim Curran, a longtime editor with Roll Call and The Washington Post, was found dead in his Washington, D.C., home on Sunday. He was 57.
Curran, according to former colleagues, was a steady hand in the frenetic world of Washington journalism and had a keen eye for talent.
“There’s a tendency in Washington political news to kind of run around with your hair on fire when there’s big news or important stuff happening. And he just kept this very even-keeled demeanor,” said Ben Pershing, a supervising editor at CNN’s Washington Bureau and Roll Call alum who worked with Curran in the 1990s and early-2000s. “When your boss is calm and feels confident that things are going to be OK, it really sends a signal to the people who work for him.”
Curran joined Roll Call in 1989 as an intern and worked his way up the ranks to become politics editor and, eventually, the newsroom’s top editor.
Under his leadership, the paper was a “scrappy little pirate ship,” according to Roll Call’s former photo editor Doug Graham.
“Not only did we have a revolving door of excellent young talent coming in, but we broke more stories than any major publication covering politics in Washington, D.C. All they could do was follow us,” Graham said.
“He really devoted a lot of his energy to not only his work as a reporter and editor, but also to helping others to learn what makes Roll Call successful and be better journalists,” said David Meyers, a former managing editor at the paper.
Curran was born in Charleston, S.C., the youngest of four children, and raised in Annandale, Va. He attended The College of William & Mary, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English, according to a spokesperson for the school.
After a nearly two-decade stint with Roll Call, he joined The Washington Post in the late-2000s. He was politics editor on the national desk and a Sunday edition editor in his more than 10 years with the Post. He announced his departure in 2023.
Pam Schaefer, one of Curran’s two surviving siblings, said he considered himself retired from journalism after leaving the Post. He would often visit her in New Mexico, where his brother Robert Curran also lives half the year, and fell in love with Taos. According to Schaefer, Curran’s dream in retirement was to open up an animal rescue ranch near his siblings where he could shelter unhoused dogs and cats.
“He’s the smartest guy I know. The funniest guy I know. And he cared so much about other people,” Schaefer said.
Curran was a Deadhead, according to his sister, and traveled around the country seeing the band perform. He loved to fish, a hobby he picked up during family vacations to Pawleys Island, S.C., and continued into adulthood. An avid baseball fan, he would travel to watch the Washington Nationals during spring training, said Paul Kane, the Post’s senior congressional correspondent who worked with Curran at Roll Call.
“He was a wonderful, caring person who loved watching others succeed,” Kane said.
Kane called him “intellectually spiritual and super well read” — the kind of person who was liable to pick up and drive cross-country on a whim.
Pershing remembered many nights with Curran and other Roll Call staffers at Irish Times and the Dubliner and playing softball together in a recreational league. He considered Curran an early mentor, and remembered him doling out advice — soak up the scene, get as much color as you can — before sending Pershing out on an early campaign story, back when Curran was Roll Call’s politics editor.
When Pershing left The Wall Street Journal in November, he said Curran was quick to check in via email.
“He was just like that. He was just someone who, even if you went six months or a year without seeing him, you always felt like he was still your good friend,” Pershing said.
Graham described Curran as a private person, but one who cared deeply for the people with whom he worked.
“Tim picked talent that he could form into this incredible team,” Graham said. “And he did it year after year after year. And all across Washington, D.C., right now, there is remarkable talent in political journalism because of Tim Curran. That was his genius.”
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