Amtelco History Part One

Throughout 2026, we will share some company history in honor of Amtelco’s 50th anniversary.  Amtelco was co-founded in 1976 by Bill Curtin, II, affectionately known as “Mr. C,” along with his wife, Eleanor.

Bill’s Early Years and the Making of a Businessman

Bill Curtin II was born in 1919 in Chicago, IL, to first-generation Irish immigrants. Bill’s father and two uncles were all police officers for the Chicago Police Department. As a young child, Bill moved to Ireland with his sisters and pregnant mother, while his father remained in Chicago to work and save money to purchase a farm and settle in Ireland.

Several years passed, and the Curtin family’s plan to stay in Ireland changed. Bill, his mom, and his sisters returned to Chicago to move to the United States permanently. Bill grew up in a small apartment on the South Side of Chicago. He and his sisters attended Catholic schools, and when Bill finished high school, unlike most of his classmates, he was presented with an invoice that needed to be paid before he could receive his diploma.

Finances were tight, so Bill earned his own money by becoming a young entrepreneur and fixing up houses. Bill paid the debt owed to his high school and received his diploma. He enrolled in a community college in Chicago to obtain a 2-year degree and a certificate to teach Mathematics. Bill didn’t know it yet, but his future wife was attending the same college.

(One-room school in the village of Rockchapel, Ireland, located in north County Cork. This is where Bill Curtin and family attended school. Pictured here from left to right are Tom, Joe, and Mary Curtin.)

(The original Curtin family farmhouse. Tom is pictured at the far left with some of the Curtin family, who are still located in Ireland.)

Bill and Eleanor Meet

During spring break, many students from the college decided to take a trip to the mountains of Tennessee and left together, forming a long caravan of cars. Bill was driving one of the cars and noticed how the brake lights of the vehicle in front of him kept going on and off.

As the caravan pulled off the road to refuel, Bill told the other people in his car that he was going to have a word with the car driver ahead of him. His passengers advised him not to do it, but against their suggestions, Bill walked up to the car and told the driver what he thought of her driving skills.

Eleanor, the car’s driver and Bill’s future wife, explained that she was driving like she always does – with one foot on the gas and the other on the brake. She was never instructed that one foot should be used for both the brake and the gas.

Bill let her know the correct way to drive a car. When the caravan started again, Bill drove behind Eleanor and found she did much better after his instructions. Once they all arrived at the mountains, Bill continued to provide Eleanor with additional driving lessons and found other excuses to spend time with her.

Later, Bill enlisted and joined the U.S. Air Force in the 1940s. He was assigned to Yale University’s communications program. When World War II ended and Bill completed his military service, he initially began a construction company. However, the training he received from Yale’s communications program would soon light the fire of invention within Mr. C.

(Bill and Eleanor Curtin in the middle.)

The next Amtelco history post will feature Bill’s early inventions and highlight the TAS business he and Eleanor began before Amtelco was founded.