Poland, Linda O.

Michael G. Curry was born and raised in Coulterville, Illinois by his father, who worked in the Air Force, and his stay-at-home mother. He was raised with two sisters. He loved school and was president of his senior class. Coulterville was and still is a small farming and mining community of 1,100 people in Randolph County. Michael believes that being from such a small town and school instilled in him values such as a strong loyalty to home, church and to friends he still keeps in contact with nearly thirty years later!

Michael attended Eastern Illinois University in Charleston for two years where he drew a daily comic strip and advertising illustrations for the college newspaper. He graduated from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale in 1987 with a Bachelor of Science in Radio-Television Communications and a minor in Journalism. While in college, Michael was a member of Kappa Kappa Psi, an Honorary Music Fraternity, and Sigma Delta Chi, an Honorary Journalism Fraternity. At SIU he co-founded Radio Action – a student-run radio production company for southern Illinois businesses and was its first President; as well as hosting music programs for WSIU-FM. Outside of his radio interests, Michael also tutored and proctored the learning disabled for Project Achieve.

After graduation, Michael concentrated on his radio career which would total ten years. His work included radio stations in Springfield, IL, and Carbondale, IL. He hosted the first new age music program for WSIU-FM. At another station his oldies show featuring music exclusively from the 1960s was once the number one rated program in its time-slot. His commercial and other radio production pieces included weekly comedy sketches for the morning drive program and spokesperson for a then-up-and-coming sandwich chain called Jimmy Johns – his ads playing in Chicago, Champaign, IL (University of Illinois), and West Lafayette, IN (Purdue University).

Going to law school and becoming an attorney was a goal of Michael's since he was a child. After his success in radio, Michael decided to enter the legal field in order to help others whereas he would only entertain them. He applied and was accepted at law schools at the University of Illinois, Northwestern, and Southern Illinois University - Carbondale. Michael selected SIU because it was closer to his family and it would allow him to continue part-time radio work.

Michael juggled work and school throughout his law school experience. Despite the seeming lack of time, Michael did join the legal fraternity Phi Delta Phi and was a member of the Products Liability Moot Court team for two years. He was also elected Third Year Representative for the Student Bar Association – effectively the Senior Class President again.

Michael worked in the Belleville, IL, law firm of LeChien & LeChien in real estate and family law, juvenile criminal representation as well as creditor work. He began representing individuals in bankruptcy law in 1993 and has since filed over 6,400 bankruptcies in southern Illinois as an associate with The Bankruptcy Center in Mount Vernon from 1995-2009 and now with The Bankruptcy Clinic.

He feels that helping others out of financial troubles is one of the most satisfying of the areas of law in which he has practiced. “I've seen thousands of people whose lives are devastated by debt caused by health problems, divorce and job loss. Add to this the sometimes vicious ways banks and lenders treat their customers to collect those debts – when a person instead needs sympathy and understanding and … well … a break – it makes me happy and proud to help them through bankruptcy.”

Michael enjoys listening to music in his spare time as well as playing guitar, piano, trumpet and violin. He has traveled to England once and Ireland three times – where he got to visit the village in which his great-grandfather lived in the 1840s. He enjoys writing and has been published in Whosoever e-magazine and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Michael has lived in Mount Vernon since 1995 and married his wife, Esther, a librarian, in 2000 and in 2009 adopted a daughter. They attend Meadowbrook Christian Church in Mount Vernon.