Dean Duncan

Dean Duncan of Brinkley, a veteran newspaper reporter and retired University of Central Arkansas journalism professor, died Saturday (Aug. 29) at the Hospice Home Care on S. Bowman Road in Little Rock. He was 90. During his long career, Duncan worked as a reporter for the Arkansas Gazette, the Memphis Commercial Appeal and the Louisville Courier-Journal, covering events such as the Kentucky Derby and the integration of Central High School in Little Rock in 1957, and interviewing well-known Americans ranging from Adlai Stevenson to Elvis Presley. He spent two years as a press officer for the Peace Corps in Washington, D.C., before accepting a position in 1967 as professor of journalism and public information officer at Arkansas State Teachers College in Conway (now the University of Central Arkansas). During 23 years on the UCA faculty, Duncan taught scores of students how to be journalists. Many went on to become leaders in print and broadcast journalism, journalism education and related communication fields in Arkansas and numerous other states. He retired in 1990 and moved back to his childhood home in the eastern Arkansas community of Brinkley. Duncan was born in 1924 on Bald Mountain near Choctaw in Van Buren County, the third and youngest son of Benjamin Andrew Duncan and Dicie Edna (Huie) Duncan, both members of pioneer families in the area. His family moved to the small town of Biscoe in Prairie County when he was a child, then to nearby Brinkley, where he attended high school. He quarterbacked the Brinkley Tigers' football team before graduating in 1943 and joining the Army Air Corps. After World War II, he earned a bachelor's degree in English and journalism at Arkansas State Teachers College in Conway and a master's degree in journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. In 1959 he studied modern British government at Oxford University, then traveled through western Europe gathering material for a series of newspaper stories published in the Memphis Commercial Appeal. Duncan was preceded in death by his parents and brothers Burl, of Little Rock, and Weldon, of Sylvan Hills. He is survived by a niece and four nephews: Martha Duncan Carter of Cortland, Illinois; Andy Duncan of Eugene, Oregon; Bud Duncan of Summerville, Oregon; William Huie Duncan of Mexico City, and Richard Duncan of Little Rock. Also surviving are several great, and great-great, nieces and nephews. A visitation will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Fowler Funeral Home, 210 S. Main Street, Brinkley. Funeral services will be at 2 p.m. Thursday at the First Baptist Church, corner of S. Main and Elm Streets, Brinkley. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Dean Duncan Scholarship Fund, Arkansas Pro Chapter, Society of Professional Journalists, 10810 Executive Center, Room 308, Little Rock, Ark. 72211.