Portville Hall of Fame
Melvin Van Curen was born at the St. Francis Hospital in Olean, New York, on
September 11, 1939. He was the oldest of three children born to Melvin and
Marjorie Amsden Van Curen, Sr. His younger siblings were Charles and Evelyn.
He attended school in Portville all of his life. In high school, he played first
trumpet under the direction of Mr. Philip Skeps and won the “John Philip
Sousa Award” in both his junior and senior years. He was a member of the
National Honor Society, and played varsity football and baseball for four years,
excelling in both. Mel graduated Portville in the class of 1957.
Mel spent his summers and after school hours working in the family business,
Portville Pharmacy. The business was opened by his pharmacist father,
Melvin, Sr., on July 2, 1944.
He attended the University of Buffalo where he was enrolled in the Pharmacy
School. He was a collegiate athlete and a member of the 1958 University of
Buffalo football team that went 8-1 in the regular season, accepting a bowl bid
to play Florida State in the 1958 Tangerine Bowl. When it was learned that
they could only play if they denied participation to any black athletes on the
team, they turned down their Bowl bid in support of their two African
American team mates.
Mel met Ellyson Joyce Lee Roberts on the Greyhound bus traveling back and
forth between Olean-Salamanca and Buffalo in 1959. He earned his Pharmacy
degree and graduated with the Class of 1960. They were married the following
year at the Salamanca Methodist Church on August 26, 1961. Mel and Ellie
welcomed their children, Preston, in 1962, Valerie, in 1968, and Heather, in
1974. Preston also became a pharmacist, like his father and grandfather.
Mel was always active in the community. He belonged to the Lions Club, the
Jaycees, and the Portville Conservation Club. He was President of the
Cattaraugus County Cancer Society, Grand Master of the local Masonic Lodge,
and led several Pharmacy organizations over the years.
Mel coached many young players in Little League Baseball in Portville, called
“The Orioles”, for five years. Many of those youth remember a giant spruce
tree near the road in front of Mel and Ellie’s home. They considered it
analogous to Boston’s Fenway Park left field wall, known as “the green
monster” wall. That giant spruce was, to them, the original “green monster”.
Between Cub Scouts, Little League Baseball, winter sled riding on Yuba Dam
road and all manner of assorted young people activities, Mel and Ellie’s home
was a busy place.
Mel and Ellie served our community establishing and maintaining a hallmark
business on Main Street in Portville from 1944 to 2008. Ellie still owns the
building that housed the pharmacy until Mel’s passing. She has operated Ye
Old Apothecary Antiques Market since 2008.
| The Portville Historical and Preservation Society |
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| 17 Maple Avenue Portville, NY 14770 www.portvillehistory.org |
Portville, New York
| Melvin Van Curen, Jr. PCS Wall of Fame Class of 2019 Inductee Posthumous |
