Graham Duncan passed away on Wednesday, February 6, 2019, at Cayuga Medical Center in Ithaca, NY, after a brief illness. His wife of 69 years, Evelyn Duncan, was at his side. He was born in Poughkeepsie, NY, in 1922 and attended the New York State College for Teachers at Albany and Cornell University. After completing his doctorate in English, he taught for three years at Russell Sage College and thirty-five years at SUNY Oneonta. He retired from full-time teaching in 1991. His undergraduate education was interrupted by World War II, during which he served in the 87th Infantry Division in Europe. He lived through the Battle of the Bulge and witnessed the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany.
Every Infant’s Blood: New and Selected Poems was published in 2002. His poems also appeared in two chapbooks, The Map Reader (1987) and Stone Circles (1992), and in numerous well-known journals. He was a member of a writers’ group in Ithaca, where he lived for many years, and in Cedar Key, FL, where he and his wife vacationed.
Graham and Evelyn traveled frequently and spent many happy hours hiking, often with friends, in New York State and Pennsylvania.
He is survived by his wife, Evelyn, of Ithaca; his niece, Elizabeth (husband Robert Fine), of Seabrook Island, SC, and their three sons (Philip, Robert, and Logan); his nephew, Brian (wife Margaret), of Kendall Park, NJ; his cousin Rita Gritman of Norridgewock, ME, and her daughters (Wanda, Donna, and Alinda), as well as other relatives and many friends.
He was predeceased by his parents, Herbert A. and Claire Arbuckle Duncan, of Poughkeepsie, NY, and his brother, Howard A. Duncan (and his sister-in-law, Mary), of Hawthorne, NY.
A memorial service will be held at a future date and will be announced.
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