ECHHS grad dies during race

A former East Chapel Hill High School valedictorian died running the Baltimore Marathon on Saturday.

Peter Curtin, 23, collapsed between miles 22 and 23 of the race, said Lee Corrigan, president of Corrigan Sports Enterprises and marathon planner.

The medical team rushed him to Union Memorial Hospital, where he died a few hours later. His temperature was 107 degrees, Corrigan said.

Curtin was a Ph.D. candidate in chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and recently earned a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship.

He graduated as the valedictorian of East Chapel Hill High School in 2004. He was also the lacrosse goalie when the team won the state championship his senior year.

Former teammate Dwight Weld remembers Curtin buying orange lacrosse balls so the two could practice in the snow.

“He’d call me at 9 or 10 o’clock on Saturday or Sunday morning to get me out to practice,” Weld said.

After high school, Curtin went to Princeton University and received a bachelor’s in chemistry with highest honors.

He continued with graduate school at MIT, where he researched with Daniel Nocera, a chemistry and energy professor.

“He just wanted to do research that would have an impact and make the world a more positive place,” his brother Matthew Curtin said.

He said their sister’s battle with cancer in high school spurred his brother’s interest in cancer research.

Nocera’s lab works on building chemosensors that could monitor the health of tumors so doctors would know which drugs to use. The chemosensors could then tell if the drugs were successfully killing the tumor, Nocera said.

“There’s no question in my mind that he was headed for superstardom,” Nocera said. “He would have contributed a lot to the world. I am sure of it.”

Jackie White, Peter Curtin’s landlord, said he would always bring her the rent check with a smile.

“I can remember thinking to myself that I hope someday my daughter will bring home a man just like that, decent and hard-working,” she said. “He seemed like a really nice kid with a handsome smile.”



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