Virginia M. Herz was born in Minnesota in 1913. She graduated in 1936 from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis with a degree in Interior Architecture. While in the program she met her future husband, fellow architecture student, Leonard James Currie and they married in 1937. The couple traveled over much of the world including Bogota, Columbia, Penang, Malausia, Boston, Chicago, and Blacksburg, Virginia. The American Institute of Architects elected Currie to Honorary Society Membership in recognition of her voluntary efforts to improve the natural and built environment, and in particular for her leadership in the Blacksburg Beautification program resulting in landscaped medians throughout town. The couple had three children - Barbara, Robert, and Elizabeth. Currie died in 2006 at the age of 92.