Wilbur associated with the firm of Bruson, Wilson & Lamme, and engaged in private practice for eight years in
Los Angeles, California.[9][10] He was active in
Republican politics, and in 1898 was president of the Fourth Ward Republican club.[11] In 1898, he served as
Los Angeles County Deputy Assistant District Attorney in the office of John C. Donnell,[12][13] and by 1899 he was the Chief Deputy under District Attorney James C. Rives.[14][15]
In September 1902, the Republican Party nominated Wilbur for the post of judge of the
Los Angeles County Superior Court to the take the seat of
Lucien Shaw, who was running for Supreme Court.[16][17][18] Wilbur won the election and in November 1902 began to hear cases pro tempore.[19][20] He was especially interested in promoting children's welfare: on the Superior Court, he was presiding judge of the juvenile department;[21][22][23][24] in 1906 he was a director of the Bethlehem Benevolent Board;[25] in 1910, he was a founding director of the Juvenile Improvement Association;[26] in 1912, he was president of the Social Purity League, which offered religious lectures to the public;[27] in 1915, he helped organize the
Boy Scouts in Los Angeles, and was named permanent chairman of the executive committee;[28] and he served as president of the state Sunday School Association, organizing evangelical gatherings for young people.[29][30][31]
It was during his time on the California Superior Court that he wrote and first published (in 1905) his popular "Bear Family" stories for children.[32]
He taught at the newly founded law school of the University of Southern California from about 1904 until 1917, while he sat on the Superior Court.[citation needed] Annually, he taught one course, extraordinary legal remedies.[citation needed]
On March 19, 1924, Wilbur was sworn in as
United States Secretary of the Navy.[39] The first appointee of President
Calvin Coolidge, Wilbur came into the position with a reputation as a man of high intellect and a character of "unimpeachable integrity." However, one critic called Wilbur "a good Sunday school teacher who wants to make the Navy safe for boys."[40] In July 1925, he accompanied three battleships on a cruise of the Pacific coast, stopping in
Marin County for a picnic of 600 midshipmen with a group of more than 100 society women on
Mount Tamalpais.[41] In August 1928, he again accompanied a fleet to
San Francisco, California on its way to Pacific training exercises.[42] By the end of his term, Wilbur had achieved success in enlarging and modernizing the fleet and established a
naval air force, which would grow to become a potent component in the war with
Japan during
World War II.[43][44]
Wilbur was married twice. On November 9, 1893, Wilbur married Ella T. Chilson.[54] She died on December 10, 1896.[55][56] Next, on January 13, 1898, he remarried to Olive Doolittle. They lived in a grand home completed in 1904 on Frederick Knob in San Francisco. Following retirement, Wilbur spent time with his wife and their three surviving children: Edna, Paul C. and Lyman Dwight.[57][58]
In the summer of 1933, one of Wilbur's children, Dr. Leonard F. Wilbur (March 2, 1907, Los Angeles – March 24th 1940, China), travelled to China with his wife Jean B. Spaulding. He studied at the College of Chinese Studies in Beijing in 1933–1934, achieving relative proficiency in Chinese. From the autumn of 1934 he worked at the American Board Mission Hospital in
Taigu in the province of
Shanxi, becoming its superintendent in 1936. He died of a typhus fever on March 24, 1940, at the age of 33, shortly after having returned from a furlough he spent at the
Stanford University School of Medicine, and after having been ill for two weeks. He was survived by his wife and a daughter named Ruth.[59]
^"Judge Wilbur to Preside at Dinner". Los Angeles Herald. No. 49. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 28 December 1914. p. 9. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
^"College Men Jubilate". Los Angeles Herald. Vol. 25, no. 290. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 17 July 1898. p. 11. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
^"Music and Drama Notes". Los Angeles Herald. Vol. 41, no. 155. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 25 March 1894. p. 16. Retrieved September 14, 2017. Curtis D. Wilbur, a graduate of the United States naval academy.
^"Judge Sees Old Neighborhood". Los Angeles Herald. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 12 April 1921. p. A7. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
^"Briefs". Los Angeles Herald. Vol. 34, no. 182. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 14 October 1890. p. 8. Retrieved September 14, 2017. The following applicants were examined yesterday for admission to practice before the state supreme court:...Curtis D. Wilbur
^"Keeping Him From Church". Los Angeles Herald. Vol. 45, no. 71. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 21 December 1895. p. 3. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
^"An Odd Case". Los Angeles Herald. Vol. 25, no. 107. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 15 January 1898. p. 10. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
^"Candidates Galore". Los Angeles Herald. Vol. 25, no. 330. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 26 August 1898. p. 8. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
^"Deposit of Funds". Los Angeles Herald. No. 239. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 27 May 1899. p. 8. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
^"Not Affected by Code Decision". Los Angeles Herald. No. 22. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 23 October 1901. p. 14. Retrieved September 14, 2017. The opinion was prepared by Chief Deputy Curtis D. Wilbur and was concurred in by District Attorney Rives
^"Nominated to Succeed Shaw". San Francisco Call. Vol. 87, no. 111. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 19 September 1902. p. 5. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
^"Wilbur is the Man". Los Angeles Herald. No. 351. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 19 September 1902. p. 9. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
^"Politics and Politicians". Los Angeles Herald. No. 349. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 17 September 1902. p. 7. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
^"The Dustless Roads Case". Evening Transcript. Vol. 9, no. 105. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 3 December 1902. p. 4. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
^Gaines, Thomas F. (17 October 1963).
"Boy in Trouble Finds a Home". Highland Park News-Herald & Journal. California Digital Newspaper Collection. p. 15. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
^"Children's Protectors Incorporate Society". Los Angeles Herald. Vol. 37, no. 114. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 23 January 1910. p. 10. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
^"Purity League Lectures". Los Angeles Herald. No. 297. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 7 September 1912. p. 16. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
^"Sunday School Meet Opens Tuesday". Sacramento Union. No. 26. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 26 May 1919. p. 7. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
^"State Convention of Sunday Schools in Two Sections". Red Bluff Daily News. No. 158. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 6 May 1920. p. 1. Retrieved September 14, 2017. Justice Curtis D. Wilbur of the slate supreme court, who is president of the association.
^"Political Arena is Center of Spotlight". Sacramento Union. No. 26166. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 6 November 1922. p. 2. Retrieved September 14, 2017. In the judicial offices Judge Curtis D. Wilbur Is unopposed for chief justice of the supreme court, having eliminated William P. Lawlor in the primaries.
^"Chief Justice Has Resigned". Madera Tribune. No. 11. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 14 November 1925. p. 1. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
^"Wilbur May Be Navy Secretary". Madera Mercury. No. 302. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 14 March 1924. p. 4. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
^"Navy Day Speaker Criticizes Wilbur". Healdsburg Tribune. California Digital Newspaper Collection. Tribune Service. 28 October 1925. p. 1. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
^"Giant Plane Tender Navy is Launched". Madera Tribune. No. 128. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 7 April 1925. p. 1. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
^"President Honored By Cruiser Nam". Coronado Eagle and Journal. No. 49. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 5 December 1928. p. 12. Retrieved September 14, 2017. The cruiser...is the third of the ten that were approved by the navy general board in 1924.
^"Wilbur Nominated for Judge Post," Woodland Daily Democrat, 1929-03-01 at p. 1 (noting, as the Coolidge Administration ended, that Coolidge nominated Wilbur for the new judgeship).
^"Sentence Cut Out by Hoover," Oakland Tribune, 1929-03-04, Section D, p. 1 (noting that the Wilbur nomination was not acted upon before the 70th Congress ended).
^Harper, Franklin (1913).
Who's who on the Pacific Coast. Harper Publishing Company. pp.
607-608. Retrieved September 14, 2017. who's who on the pacific coast wilbur, curtis dwight.
^"Deaths-Wilbur". Los Angeles Herald. Vol. 26, no. 73. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 12 December 1896. p. 10. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
^"New Suits Filed". Los Angeles Herald. Vol. 26, no. 95. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 3 January 1897. p. 12. Retrieved September 14, 2017. The estate of Ella C. Wilbur, deceased —The petition of Curtis D. Wilbur and Henry G. Chilson for probate of will. The estate is valued at $7600.
^"Births". Los Angeles Herald. No. 171. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 21 March 1902. p. 10. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
^"Obituary: Paul C. Wilbur". San Jose Mercury News. MercuryNews.com. June 10, 2003. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
^"Wilbur Keeping Silence on Possible Cabinet Job". San Bernardino Sun. Vol. 63, no. 153. California Digital Newspaper Collection. United Press. 31 January 1929. p. 1. Retrieved September 14, 2017.