Moscow Parks and Recreation Director Celebrates Doctorate from COE

By Allison R. Stormo

Moscow Parks and Recreation director Dwight Curtis can take a deep breath. After working on his doctorate for seven years, he finally can get outdoors without worrying about his research.

“This is the first time in seven years I can go hunting and not feel guilty,” he said.

It is a break Curtis deserves. He started working on his doctorate with the College of Education in 2005. After taking one class at a time while still maintaining his full-time director job, he has completed his education. He defended his dissertation in August, which was on research he conducted on playground safety, and then had the pleasure of walking through commencement in December.

“The professors were very supportive,” Curtis said. “The city, my boss, the mayor and the council were all supportive.”

Curtis can now round out his education from University of Idaho and claim he is 100 percent Vandal.

Directly after high school, he entered the National Guard as a medic, then enrolled at U-Idaho to work on a biology degree where he also was in ROTC.

However, Curtis took an elective class in recreation and was sold on it, and quickly changed his major.

“I’ve always liked sports and recreation,” the McCall native said. “I love the outdoors.”

With the exception of the six years he spent in active duty infantry special forces after graduation in 1984, he has remained in the recreation field ever since. He interned with Moscow Parks and Recreation his senior year and has come full circle to become the director. He didn’t think he would return to Moscow when he originally left, but he has been drawn back several times.

His first parks and recreation job after transitioning from active duty to Reserves was in Ketchikan, Alaska. While he enjoyed his time there, his wife didn’t love it.

“The deal was that if we left Alaska, I would go back to school.”

Thus began the journey back to the Palouse where Curtis received his master’s degree in sport and recreation management in 1994. Even being immersed in academia, he remained involved in the physical aspects of the industry.

At that time, he said the Latah County Parks and Recreation manager position was reserved for a U-Idaho graduate student. A vacancy came up and Curtis was asked to take over the job.

“They had this junky old trailer for us to stay in – but it was free housing,” he said. “We couldn’t take a box spring inside because it wouldn’t go around the corners. Instead we had to put a mattress on the floor.”

There was no TV or cable. It was tiny. But it was just for a little more than a year.

“It was like a camping trip but we knew it was temporary,” he said with a laugh.

After receiving his master’s in 1994, he worked several jobs throughout the U.S. before returning to Moscow.

Curtis started looking more closely at an increase in injuries from playground equipment and wanted to know why.

“I started investigating and looking for answers on my own, but couldn’t find any,” he said.

He says there has been a movement for a number of years for parks and recreations agencies to hire people who have received National Recreation and Parks