Ann Ward Curby, a pioneer in the field of computer systems analysis, died in her sleep at her home in East Cambridge on Oct. 27, 2024. She was 97.
The daughter of Mark Hopkins Ward and Anna Rathburn Ward, Ann was born in Newton on April 6, 1927. Before Ann’s birth, her parents were medical missionaries in Harput, Turkey, known as “the slaughterhouse province” after an estimated 10,000 Armenians were killed there in 1915.
Mark was taken prisoner by the Turks, and Anna was expelled with the other women and children. She fled to Provincetown to pray for Mark’s survival. He did survive and later ran a medical clinic in Boston for returning missionaries, including some of Ann’s uncles and aunts who were teachers and doctors in China, Lebanon, and India.
Growing up in Newton and summering each year at her family’s cottage in Provincetown’s Mayflower Heights, Ann developed a deep interest in mathematics. She graduated from Newton High School in 1944.
Ann graduated from Mt. Holyoke College in 1948 and began her career as a computer systems analyst. Her first job, with Project Whirlwind at MIT in the early 1950s, involved identifying incoming air traffic for the Air Force. She earned her M.S. in computer science at Boston University in 1983.
On Valentine’s Day, 1953, Ann married Willaim A. Curby, and between 1954 and 1958 they had three children. As the mother of small children, Ann joined Computations, Inc., a group of women who worked from home and jokingly called themselves the “pregnant programmers.”
After her children started school, Ann worked at Honeywell, writing and maintaining the operating system for the company’s mainframe computers. She and William divorced in 1983, and she married Thomas J. Fitzgerald, one of the developers of mainframes, in 1986. Ann was dedicated to her work, returning post-retirement in the late 1990s for “Y2K” programming.
In the summers, Ann continued programming in Provincetown, often shooing her children out of doors during the day so she could troubleshoot computer codes written in binary on reams of green-bar pages spread across the dining room table.
As a child, Ann had attended the Church of the Pilgrims (Congregational) next to Provincetown Town Hall. As an adult, she noted how strange it felt to watch risqué French films in the movie theater that occupied that same space.
Ann learned to sail from her father. She taught sailing skills to her children and their friends and raced for years with the Provincetown Yacht Club. When she was young, she met Flyer Santos, who, according to family lore, also learned to sail with Ann’s father. Santos delivered a rental sailboat to Ann’s family each summer, and they remained lifelong friends.
Ann’s true passion was working to make the world a better place. In Newton, she was active in the League of Women Voters and a strong supporter of efforts to build affordable housing. She kept a “ditto machine” in her basement, used for producing newsletters for various causes, and enlisted her children to march around the dining room table collating pages while she waited with stapler in hand.
In Cambridge, Ann attended First Church and became active in the Cambridge Cluster of the Refugee Immigration Ministry (RIM). For 30 years, until age 90, she spent Thursday evenings serving meals and sharing friendship with guests who came through the open doors at the Harvard Square Churches Meals Program.
After retirement, she participated in marches and rallies to raise awareness about global warming. She often reminded her family that “when you have white hair you can speak your mind and people will listen!”
Ann is survived by her children, Catherine and partner Birch Pavelsky of Fairbanks, Alaska, Judith and wife Gayle Smalley of Newton, and Mark Curby of Cambridge; and a grandchild, Shai Pavelsky of Cambridge.
Ann was predeceased by her husband, Thomas J. Fitzgerald Jr.
A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. on Nov. 23 in the Chapel at the Newton Cemetery, 791 Walnut St.
In lieu of flowers, donations in Ann’s memory can be made to the Harvard Square Churches Meals Program, c/o Christ Church, Zero Garden Street, Cambridge 02138, or to the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown.
