Dale Duncan, a former administrator at the Munroe-Meyer Institute, died on Feb. 27 at the age of 86 years old.
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Dale Duncan |
“He was committed to the mission of MMI,” said Mark Conlin of the MMI Business Office, a longtime friend of Duncan’s. “He was hired by Paul Pearson, and I’d call him one of the important early leaders at MMI, a person integral to building the mission of MMI.”
Duncan’s daughter, Sammi Duncan, said he was proud to have been an active part of building MMI and growing it to what it is today.
“He had many doctor’s appointments and hospitalizations at UNMC over the last several years, and each time we would drive by the MMI building he would share a memory with so much pride in his eyes,” she said. “He loved and respected so many of the people that he had worked with over the years.”
Wayne Stuberg, Ph.D., associate director of MMI, recalled Duncan’s wonderful sense of humor.
“He was always positive about working through issues,” Dr. Stuberg said. “This was particularly helpful to me as new administrator at MMI.”
Keith Allen, Ph.D., director of the MMI Department of Psychology, still has a construction hard hat Duncan gave him.
“Whenever I would tell him about my ceiling caving in from snow or water on the roof (which is a pretty regular occurrence), he would smile wryly, chuckle, hand me a hard hat and say, ‘Good luck,'” Dr. Allen said. “He would actually call maintenance, but he would always pretend like I was on my own. It was a little joke between us. Of course, we both knew maintenance wouldn’t be able to solve the problem anyway. When he retired, he gave me the hat.”
Janice Flegle, director of the MMI Department of Occupational Therapy, called Duncan a good-natured guy who loved his post-Air Force career at MMI.
“He didn’t mince words and was probably honest to a fault,” Flegle said. “He was just a good guy.”