The Rev. Alexander McCurdy, III, PhD

Alex (Sandy) McCurdy died in the loving embrace of his family on March 22, 2026, two days after his 87th birthday surrounded by his wife of 35 years, Patricia (Patsy) Peterson Tyson Stroud McCurdy, his children Daphne McCurdy Sigismondi and Gregory von Stetten McCurdy, and his nephew Eric Graham Schultz.

Alex was born in Philadelphia in 1939 to Alexander Jr. and Flora Bruce Greenwood McCurdy, a prominent organist and harpist, respectively, and had an older sister Xandra (Schultz). He developed an early love of music and learned to play the organ and piano from his father and imbibed a religious faith that later called him to the Episcopal priesthood. Alex also excelled in athletics, playing baseball, basketball and football at the Episcopal Academy in Merion, PA from which he graduated in 1957.

Alex was a gifted communicator and had a love of languages becoming fluent, first in French, and later in German and Italian. He majored in French at Wesleyan University from which he graduated in 1961. During his junior year abroad studying at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1959 he met his first wife Dagmar Siglinde von Stetten, of Berlin, Germany. They were married in Berlin in 1961 and had two children, Greg (1964 in New Haven) and Daphne (1966 in Philadelphia). Following three years of seminary Alex earned a master's degree in theology at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, MA and was ordained an Episcopal priest in Connecticut in 1964.

After a year as a young parish priest in Southport, CT where he spoke out passionately against the Vietnam war, Alex became the assistant chaplain at the Episcopal Academy. Alex's teaching and preaching of the Gospel were anti-war and pro-civil rights. This endeared him to many of his students but less so to some parents and administrators.

In the late 1960s, Alex developed an interest in psychoanalysis, so in 1969 he and Dagmar moved the family to West Berlin where he wanted to train as a Jungian analyst. At first Alex taught religion at the German American school and within two years was fluent in German and became a chaplain in a mental hospital. After a few years, Alex earned a master's degree in psychology, completed his psychoanalytic training and transitioned from working as a chaplain to helping people through psychoanalysis.

Following Alex and Dagmar's divorce in 1976, Alex met his second wife, Jole Emma Cappiello, MD, an Italian psychiatrist at a professional conference in London. They were married in 1977 in Rome, Italy. They had thriving psychoanalytic practices first in Rome and later in Center City Philadelphia and Merion, until Jole's untimely death in 1991 from pancreatic cancer at age 51.

Alex found a final, joyful chapter with Patsy, his sister Xandra's childhood best friend. Patsy was twice widowed with three children, John, Peter and Lisa Tyson who are close in age to Greg and Daphne. Alex and Patsy fell in love, were married and enjoyed 35 years of happiness together. Alex continued his psychoanalytic practice in Radnor for another decade while Patsy wrote biographies of the natural scientists Thomas Say and Charles Lucien Bonaparte, the statesman Joseph Bonaparte (Napoleon's older brother and former King of Spain) and the explorer Meriwether Lewis, as well as a history of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences.

Alex and Patsy's shared love of music, art, history, family and sailing would become sources of cherished times together at numerous concerts, exhibits, lectures, and time spent traveling. They lived in Wayne, PA surrounded by books, art and gardens. They summered in Blue Hill, Maine sailing in Penobscot Bay on Alex's 40-foot sloop, Fermina Daza, from the Kollegewidgwok Yacht Club.

After Alex retired from his analytic practice, he found that a life of sailing, tennis, piano playing, books and socializing was not sufficiently fulfilling, so he joined St David's Episcopal church as an Associate Rector where he enjoyed engaging with parishioners and preaching the Gospel. He served the parish from 2004 to 2021 until at age 82 the onset of Parkinson's moved him to retire a second time.

In addition to Patsy, Daphne, Greg, Lisa, John and Peter and their spouses, Alex is survived by eight grandchildren, one great grandchild, his nephew Eric and nieces Ellen and Barbara and their spouses and children.

A memorial service will be held at St. David's in Wayne on May 9, 2026, at 11:00 a.m. with a reception to follow. His ashes will be buried in the family plot in Castine, Maine later in the summer.