Michael Curiale
OBITUARY
Michael Benjamin Curiale was born on the 9th of November 1941 in Chicago, Illinois, and left this world on the 27th of December 2025 in Long Beach, California, at the age of 84. After many months of health problems, and residing in hospital and skilled nursing facilities throughout most of his last nine months, he is now free of all the pain and worry.
Michael led a long and interesting life, growing up in Bellwood, Illinois, and going through his college years at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. He moved to California in his late twenties and lived there for the rest of his life. During his last few years in Illinois, and for three decades in the San Francisco and Los Angeles area, he worked for and managed several employment agencies, helping to staff nationwide corporations with scientists and engineers. After running his own agency in Irvine, California, he eventually settled in Long Beach.
With a head for business and a knack for getting to know people, Michael had a wide network of friends. He was generous to a fault, and his parents, siblings, nieces, nephews and friends visited vacation spots, ate at a lot of wonderful places, and saw many baseball and hockey games on Michael’s nickel.
Michael loved all sports, and his sports memory was phenomenal. He followed many teams, from those in his native Chicago (the Cubs and White Sox, the Blackhawks, and the Bears) to those in his adopted California (the Dodgers and Angels in baseball, and the Kings and Ducks in hockey). He introduced his younger brother and sister to sports by taking them to many games over their early years. He had an impressive recall of sports stats, even in his later years. Up until a year or so ago Michael could still name the starting 1960s infielders for the Cubs and the White Sox, and the players on the first two lines on the Chicago Blackhawks in those days. Bobby Hull and Stan Makita were his heroes.
Michael is predeceased by his mother and father, Anne Elizabeth (nee Castello) and John Michael Curiale, and his brother, John Samuel Curiale. He is survived by his sister Mary Elizabeth Galuska (married to Aleck) of Orange, California, brother Joseph Anthony Curiale (married to Esperanza) of Sugar Land, Texas, Aunt Adrienne Curiale (widow of Samuel) of Wood Dale, Illinois, nieces Kelly Muirragui (nee Galuska) and Katie Galuska, and nephews Thomas Curiale, John Curiale, Michael Curiale, and Andy Galuska.
A Funeral Mass will be held for Michael at 10am on Saturday 17 January 2026 at St Paschal Babylon Catholic Church, 155 East Janss Road, Thousand Oaks, California. The Mass will be followed by a graveside service and interment at Assumption Cemetery at 1380 Fitzgerald Road, Simi Valley, California.