Curtis Leach

Daniel Curtis Leach, Jr. (69) died on November 29, 2023, at his home in Henderson, Nevada, near Las Vegas, where he had lived with the love of his life, Hye Sukie ("Sukie") Pak. He had experienced some significant health challenges, but the timing of his death was unexpected.

Born on May 24, 1954, in Richmond, Virginia, Curtis was a 1973 graduate of Midlothian High School, and he took courses at Virginia Commonwealth University. He worked in the Richmond area initially, but eventually relocated to Salt Lake City, Utah. In 2003, Curtis and Sukie met on a tour bus from Salt Lake City to Yellowstone National Park and fell in love. A month later, Curtis relocated to Los Angeles to be with Sukie and the two were inseparable from that time until Curtis died.

During his work life, Curtis was a Greyhound bus driver for more than ten years. With Sukie's encouragement, he also worked as a real estate agent. Curtis followed several sports teams, collected watches, and loved his backyard garden and the view he had from his neighborhood of the lights of Las Vegas in the valley below.

Although Curtis was raised in the Southern Baptist Church, in the several years before his death, he developed an interest in Catholicism. He supported several Catholic charities. Pictures of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and of several Christian apostles and saints were on the wall near his favorite chair. One of the prayers he chose to display in the bedroom reads, "Merciful Jesus, you are my guide, the joy of my heart, the author of my hope, and the object of my love. I come seeking refreshment and peace. Show me your mercy, relieve my fears and anxieties, and grant me a quiet mind and an expectant heart, that by the assurance of your presence I may learn to abide in you, who is my Lord and my God. Amen."

In addition to Sukie, Curtis is survived by his sister, Lynne Leach Greber and her husband Dave; his nieces, Lauren Marie Nava and her husband, Ben, and Elizabeth Hunt Fouse and her husband, Ike; numerous cousins; and Sukie's relatives in California, who became family to him, including Sukie's nephew, Brian Park and his wife, Daisy, and his family. Curtis's parents were the late Wilda Hunt Leach and Daniel Curtis Leach, Sr.

No memorial service is planned. As a remembrance of Curtis and in his honor, friends and family may wish to consider donations to one of Curtis's favorite charities, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

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