At the June 3, 2026 Highline School Board meeting, Evergreen alumni, students and members of Tyrone Curry’s family supported a request to recognize Curry’s longtime service to Evergreen High School. Tyrone is pictured fifth from left.

The Highline School Board approved a request at its June 3 meeting to install a new plaque at the Evergreen High School track in honor of Tyrone Curry, former board member and former Evergreen staff member, coach and longtime volunteer.

Friends of Evergreen will host a ceremony next year, during cross country or track season to honor Tyrone’s contributions to Evergreen and to Highline Public Schools. Community fundraising is planned to cover the design, construction and installation of the plaque.

The following profile of Tyrone and his contributions was attached to the board agenda. It was signed by 17 community members and alumni, including members of classes from 1981 to as recent as 2029.

Profile of Tyrone Curry: An Everyday Hero

This kind of everyday Highline hero doesn’t show up just every day, but day after day.

Tyrone Curry, Sr., grew up in central Seattle and was raised by a single mom with eight brothers and sisters. Tyrone said his mother worked two to three jobs to raise her children and taught them to live modestly and conservatively. “She kept us grounded,” he said.

“She taught us to work for what we got and to work with what we got,” he said.

Tyrone attended Garfield High School, where he played basketball, football, track and baseball. He joined the Navy directly out of high school–serving in Vietnam–and shipped out to fight seven times.

Curry had hoped to become a teacher, but life and kids interfered, and he never earned his degree. When he left college, he found a job as a teaching assistant at the former Puget Sound Jr High, but when funding for that position was cut, he accepted a job in maintenance and moved over to Evergreen High School in 1979.

Tyrone worked at Evergreen for more than 30 years as a custodian, and coached track as well as boys and girls basketball. He also worked two other jobs as a seating host at the Kingdome (now Lumen Field) and Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park) and an assistant lead usher at Key Arena (now Climate Pledge Arena).

Won Lottery, Kept Helping Evergreen

In 2006, Tyrone won $3.4 million in the Washington State Lottery. But instead of leaving his job at Evergreen, he continued working. At 4 in the morning, he could have been sleeping instead of raising the American flag outside Evergreen.

“Nah,” he told The Today Show at the time. “You need to be doing stuff. That’s my philosophy.”

Tyrone continued living in the same small house, installing a heat pump, siding and a new driveway. He also bought a new car. And that was it.

“When people ask me, ‘How does it feel to be a millionaire?,’ I just tell them, ‘I’m just Joe Citizen,’” he said. “I do everything that I want to do, and I still hang out with the same people I’ve hung out with for 60 years so, you know, it’s nothing different.”

But even before he won the lottery, one of the things Curry talked most about was the desire to build a real track — one that didn’t get muddy in winter or hard as rock in summer — for the young athletes he coaches at Evergreen.

In April 2011, Tyrone presented the school district with $40,000 to go towards a brand new track.

He retired in June 2011, after more than 34 years with the district, and in November 2011 was elected to the Highline School Board, where he served for 8 more years representing the Evergreen High School service area.

Today, Tyrone still works multiple jobs and helps out at Evergreen.

Here’s the message sent in honor of his generous work for this local school:

“We, the Evergreen High School community, respectfully request the Highline School Board to approve our recommendation and install a plaque of recognition in honor of Mr. Curry at the Evergreen Track.

“Signed,

    • Eugene Barret – Class of 2026, Senior Class Vice President
    • Ingrid Gonzales – Class of 2026
    • Vinh Huynh – Class of 2026
    • Mariah Aguilar-Santiago – Class of 2027
    • Zainab Mohamud – Class of 2027
    • Allison Ruiz Gonzales – Class of 2028
    • Arnoldo Merlo – Class of 2028, ASB Public Relations
    • Becca Bosanko – Class of 2028, HOSA (Future Health Professionals) Vice President
    • Mayrin Aguilar-Santiago – Class of 2028, ASB Secretary
    • Nuuralayn Sherif – Class of 2028, Sophomore Class Vice President
    • Taqwa Isse – Class of 2028
    • Geraldine Jimenez-Guzman – Class of 2029
    • Ivana Ramirez – Class of 2029
    • Joe Boyer – Principal of The Evergreen High School
    • Long Phan EHS ‘02 – Friends of Evergreen High School
    • Pat Thompson EHS ‘81 – YES! Foundation of White Center, Evergreen Wolverine Athletic Association
    • Silvia Paz – Current EHS Teacher, Leadership and ASB advisor, future EHS parent”

Text & photos courtesy Highline Public Schools.