worked to modernize Maryland's divorce and
alimony laws, reform adoption and guardianship,
and protect victims of domestic violence.

Mr. Curran is married to the former Barbara
Marie Atkins. They are the parents of five children,
Mary Carole, Alice, Catherine, J. Joseph III (Max),
and William (deceased). The Currans reside in the
Homeland section of Baltimore City.

JOHN T. WILLIS

The Governor appointed John T. Willis to be
Secretary of State on January 18, 1995. Mr. Willis
was confirmed unanimously by the Senate on
February 3, 1995.

Born November 1, 1946, Mr. Willis attended
public schools in Maryland, graduating from
Westminster High School in 1964. Mr. Willis
graduated cum laude from Bucknell University
with a B.A. in Economics in 1968 and was elected
to Phi Beta Kappa. He received his J.D. in 1971
from Harvard Law School with an emphasis on
constitutional law.

In the United States Army, Mr. Willis served in
the Judge Advocate General Corps from 1968 to
1971 at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, and Fort
Meade, Maryland. In the U.S. Army Judiciary, he
was Clerk to the Army Court of Military Review
and served with the Defense Appellate Division,
1971-74. Mr. Willis completed his tour of duty as

the Legal Assistance Officer at Aberdeen Proving
Ground, 1974-75. As an attorney, he engaged in
private general practice from 1975 to 1990 in
Westminster, Maryland, with his own firm, and in
Baltimore City with the law firms of Blades and
Rosenfeld, and Weinberg and Green, with extensive
experience in small business, real estate, zoning and
land-use law. He was Chief of Staff to the County
Executive of Prince George's County from 1990 to
1994.

Mr. Willis is an author, historian, and widely
recognized expert on the Maryland electorate and
the State's demographics. An adjunct professor, he
has taught in the Business and Economics
Department at Western Maryland College from
1979 to the present. His published works include
Presidential Elections in Maryland, Lomond
Publications, Inc., 1984; "The United States Court
of Military Appeals: Born Again," 52 Indiana Law
Journal 151 (1976); "The United States Court of
Military Appeals: Its Origin, Operation and
Future," 57 Military Law Review 27 (1972). He
was a contributing author to Western Maryland: A
Profile, T. H. Hattery, ed., (1980), and Justice and
the Military, H.E. Moyer, Jr., ed., (1972). From
December 1973 to August 1974, he edited The
Advocate, a bimonthly newsletter for military
defense counsel.

Mr. Willis chairs the Governor's Commission on
Maryland Military Monuments. He also serves on
the Advisory Board to the University of Baltimore's
Schaefer Center for Public Policy. He is a member
of the Maryland Historical Society, the Carroll
County Bar Association, the Maryland Bar
Association, and a past president of the Carroll
County Arts Council.

From 1987 to 1989, Mr. Willis served on the
Democratic National Committee and was
Vice-Chair of the Maryland Democratic Party. At
the Democratic Party National Convention, he
served on the Rules Committee in 1976, 1984, and
1992; as a delegate in 1988; and as an alternate
delegate in 1980. He served as a member of the
Democratic State Central Committee for Carroll
County, elected with the highest number of votes
in the primary election on September 14, 1982. He
was a member of the Electoral College from
Maryland in 1992. Most recently, he was elected
Chair of the Democratic Association of Secretaries
of State in 1995 and serves as their representative
to the Democratic Central Committee.

Mr. Willis is married to Kathy S. Mangan, a
published poet and Professor of English at Western
Maryland College. He is the father of two children,
Karen M. Willis, a graduate of American University
and Vermont Law School, and James T. Willis, a
graduate of Franklin and Marshall College.