Cmdr. Curtis Alan Rideout, Ret., U.S.N.

It all started when…

Curt grew up in Boise, where he attended Koelsch Elementary School, Fairmont Junior High School, and Capital High School.  He graduated from Capital, where he also played football, in 1976.  He next attended Oregon State University, where he graduated with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering in 1980.  He later received a Master of Business Administration from the University of Nebraska, in 1998.

During his last year of college, Curt was commissioned into the United States Navy, where he served from 1979 to 2001.  He entered Officer Candidate School in 1980 and began a successful military career, rising through the ranks and retiring at the rank of Commander.  Along the way, Curt received naval graduate degrees in both nuclear and physical engineering, as well as numerous honors and medals.

During his naval career, Curt proudly served as an officer in the nuclear submarine fleet and was deployed all over the world.  He served on both fast attack submarines, beginning with the U.S.S. Drum, and on Trident missile submarines, including the U.S.S. Henry M. Jackson.  In the later years of his naval career, Curt redirected his intelligence and his engineering prowess to military satellites, serving at the U.S. Strategic Command in Nebraska and helping to command satellite communications for the Navy.

While in the Navy, Curt also had a family that included four daughters, born in different parts of the country, depending upon his deployment:  Jennifer, born in 1982 in San Diego, California; Laura, born in 1985 in Idaho Falls, Idaho; Jacque, born in 1988 in Groton, Connecticut; and Brittany, born in 1998 in Omaha, Nebraska.  He regularly signed his cards and correspondence to other family and friends as “Curt and the girls.”  As they grew older, he traveled with them on long trips to different parts of the country, wanting his girls to see a country and a heritage that he loved.

Following his retirement from the Navy in 2001, Curt returned to Idaho and began a second career in business and technology.  He began this second phase with Positron Systems, Inc., of Boise, where he also co-authored several published papers.  He later worked with both Intellex LLC and Lightning Solutions LLC.

 Although his Navy career took him all around both the country and the world, his heart lay in Southern Idaho and, more specifically, at the family property on the Middle Fork of the Payette River in Garden Valley.  As a child, he spent many weekends and summers at both his grandfather’s and his parents’ cabins on the river.  Later, in between military deployments, he would often spend his precious time off in Garden Valley, usually taking his girls with him and staying with his aunt, Effie Clayton, at her cabin.  When he relocated back to Idaho, he again spent much of his spare time “up at the cabin,” this time happily taking possession of and caring for the cabin of his grandfather, Jack Davis.

Curt used his time at the cabin to introduce his girls to the outdoors--swimming, fishing, and floating down the river with them, and often ending the day with a campfire and s’mores under a mountain sky studded with stars.  He also hunted, skied, rode motorcycles both small and large, and engaged in serious spelunking throughout the Pacific Northwest.  He was truly adventuresome.

Curt had the mind of an engineer and could make almost anything work, from a submarine reactor to a lawnmower.  He was always tinkering, with a set of tools readily at hand.  At the same time, he enjoyed his friends and was always willing to share a joke (whether good or bad).  He had close friendships not only with his peers, but also with the elderly, for whom he was always supportive and helpful.  And he loved dogs and enjoyed the affectionate companionship of many, including Peggy, Heidi, Scuffy, Icehouse, and Molly.

In recent years, he suffered complications from health conditions that compromised his quality of life, but he continued to spend time at his cabin and also managed to volunteer with the Disabled American Veterans chapter in Boise.  And he kept his lifelong sense of humor.

He is survived by his daughters Jennifer Anne Rideout, of Washington, Laura Lynn Spoklie and Jacqueline Marie Rideout, both of Idaho, and Brittany Marie Beard-Rideout, of California; by his grandchildren Karmyndee Lynn Spoklie, James Max Spoklie, Aydan James Garner, and Revan Malak Ockerman, all of Idaho; and by his brother John Christopher Rideout and his sisters Teri Lynn Rideout and Joni McRoberts, all of Washington.