Father Bonaventure Curtis was raised in Minneapolis. At 15, he accepted an appointment by Senator Hubert Humphrey to work as one of the 20 Pages in the United States Senate, while attending the private Capital Page School in the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Following high school, he completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Minnesota, while working as a personal assistant for then-Vice President Humphrey through his election campaign to the President of the United States.
After Humphrey’s loss to Richard Nixon, Curtis taught senior English in a suburban Minneapolis high school. In 1972, he moved to Los Angeles, where he was licensed as a life and health insurance agent and married his wife, Roswitha, an immigrant from Austria. Their family raised three daughters, who have grown to be professionals. He has six grandchildren.
Over the next 28 years, the couple owned and operated a number of businesses, including a chain of donut shops, several restaurants, a real estate and mortgage company, and a full-service travel agency company that was noted as the largest retailer for American Airlines.
Curtis also attended law school and was admitted to the Bar of California and of New York. His law practice served as counselor at law for national and international businesses, and represented a number of the most important producers in the entertainment industry in Hollywood and Manhattan. Further, for more than seven years, his associate served as the attorney for Mrs. Buckey in the longest and most expensive criminal case in American history: the McMartin Preschool Molestation Trial in Los Angeles.
Four years after his wife’s death, Father Bonaventure entered the novitiate at Saint Vincent Archabbey in 2004 and was ordained to the priesthood in 2010. He has been appointed to the faculty of Saint Vincent College since 2005.