James H. Cure

Jim Cure is a native of Martinsville, Indiana, where he graduated from high school in 1965. He is the son of a Purdue engineer (William James – BSEE 1939) and his four siblings also attended Purdue. Jim attended Purdue in 1965-67 before joining the Navy in 1968. After four years in the Navy as a communications technician (CTO2) working in intelligence, Jim returned to Purdue in the spring of 1972 to become a Civil Engineer – graduating in May of 1975. He was a Residence Hall Counsellor, active in several clubs and was President of the student chapter of ASCE his senior year.

Jim was hired by BMW Constructors in Indianapolis and worked as a Project Engineer/Project Manager in the petrochemical and paper industries, working various construction projects in the Midwest and Southeast. In 1979, he went to work for Hoffman Construction in Portland, Oregon, as an Operations Manager overseeing a 1,200-man paper mill expansion near Missoula, Montana, and the Justice Center in Portland, Oregon.

In 1982 he joined forces with Fullman Mechanical where he was promoted to Vice President overseeing the formation and growth of the Advanced Technology Division specializing in high purity piping for the semiconductor and pharmaceutical industries. During his tenure at Fullman, Jim served on several semiconductor standards committees, establishing many of the processes and construction techniques still used today for cleanroom and high purity piping systems. His division grew from a few small projects into one of the largest high purity global piping contractors in the world.

In 2000, Jim became the President of Advanced Technology Group in Hillsboro, Oregon, until his retirement in 2007.

Following his discharge from the Navy, Jim met Carol Helseth, a University of Oregon graduate and social worker with senior citizens in his hometown of Martinsville. They married in 1973 and lived in married student housing during Jim’s last two years at Purdue.

Jim remains involved in several nonprofit boards including the Purdue Alumni Board of Oregon and SW Washington, and several corporate boards. In his spare time he chairs a golf charity event, Get Wet for a Vet, which has raised and donated more than $275,000 in the last eight years, benefitting veterans and active duty military charities.

Jim and Carol are the proud parents of three, B.J. (Purdue BSCE 1997), Katy and Libby, and have four wonderful grandchildren.