The business grew steadily each year. Nancy, Jack’s daughter started working full time at Curry right after high school in 1979. Nancy and Sandy ran the copy business and Jack ran the press. Over time, more staff was added. Warren was hired as pressman in 1982. Sales grew and loyal clients returned month after month, year after year.

Sandy bought Jack’s share of the business in 1985 and became the full owner of Curry. Paula worked at Curry part-time as the bookkeeper while she was in college (81-85). She came back full time at the end of 87, after earning her M.B.A. at Loyola College. Shortly after that, Beth Cohen was hired and became Curry's first graphic designer. Kim joined us in 1992. Seeing that she had a competent staff, Sandy started taking more time off of work, buying a home in Florida. In 1992, Paula bought Sandy’s ownership of the company and became the new owner of what was now known as Curry Printing & Copy Center.

In the years since Paula bought Curry, there have been staggering changes in the industry known as quick printing. Technological advances have brought about dramatic increases in quality, speed and productivity, while driving prices down. Computers are now part of every facet of the printing business, and become more vital each year. Consolidation has caused the number of competitors to drop, while driving price competition even higher.

Jobs that used to take a week now only take a few hours. Jobs that used to take all day now take 15 minutes. Printing jobs used to come in “camera-ready,” literally meaning able to be placed in the camera and have a plate shot directly from the paper. Now “camera-ready” means a disk or emailed file containing the job, ready to be output directly onto a plate to go onto the press. Over 95% of Curry's printing work is now from a digital file. Many tasks that used to be “subbed out” are now done in-house.

In 1981, our copy machines made 650,000 black and white copies. Currently, those numbers are counted in the multi-millions, growing each year.

Curry has weathered two economic downturns, emerging not only unscathed, but healthier and more competitive than ever. In addition, Curry has very little turnover, and has an extremely strong, talented, and professional staff. Curry was voted the City Paper's “Best Copy Shop in Baltimore in 2000", a very high honor. At the celebrated ten year milestone of Paula’s ownership of Curry in 2002, there was a pervasive feeling of gratitude to those people who have helped Curry achieve the level of success it enjoyed then, and still enjoys today. Everyone at Curry looks forward to the future and the many new challenges that await us there.

Thank you for taking the time to read the history of Curry Printing & Copy Center.