Joel S. “Joe” Duncan, 81, one of the most universally admired and respected employees in the Golden Era of The Huntsville Times — the mid-1960s until the early 2000s — died of a heart attack early Monday morning at Huntsville Hospital, shortly before dawn.
Survivors include his wife of nearly 29 years, Mary Lou Duncan of Huntsville; a daughter, Kimberly Durham (Steve); a brother, Ford Duncan, 89, of Phenix City, Ala., grandchildren Sara Richey (John William), Kaleigh Fleming (Tucker) and Camryn Durham; and great-grandchild Owen Fleming. Joe, the youngest of nine children, was predeceased by his parents, Cecil and Martha Duncan; and by seven brothers and sisters; and by daughter Karen Kremer and son-in-law Paul Kremer.
The funeral will be Wednesday, Nov. 3, at the Laughlin Service Funeral Home in Huntsville, beginning with a visitation from 12:30 – 1:30 at the Laughlin chapel and ending with a graveside service at Maple Hill Cemetery.
Writing on Monday to the 250 members of a Facebook website titled “The Good Times of The Huntsville Times (former Times Staffers),” former Times publisher Bob Ludwig’s reaction to Joe’s passing may have put it best. “Joe was a pillar in every sense of the word,” said Ludwig. “He was a steady, guiding hand that made our newspaper better every issue he put to bed. But he rose to special heights out of the bullpen where his smile and caring soul for those surrounding him set a standard few can attain. Rest in Peace.”
Similar tributes poured in throughout the day from former reporters, photographers, fellow editors, newspaper executives, onetime copy carriers, former members of the composing room, former pressmen, former distribution and advertising workers — in short, from nearly every department throughout the newspaper’s former location on South Memorial Parkway.
A comforting mainstay in The Huntsville Times newsroom for more than four decades, Joe Duncan served as the News Editor — one of the most important positions at the paper — for most of the 42 years from of his initial employment in 1967 until his retirement in 2009.
“I think a lot of Times employees, especially those in the newsroom, took their cue from Joe Duncan,” said Tony Triolo, one of a bevy of the newspaper’s award-winning photographers of that era. “He really did set the bar high and many of us tried to attain a similar measure of excellence, although few could match Joe’s dedication and work ethic. He was a great newspaperman and an even better friend.”
“Joe had a warmth and kindness that lit up every room he entered and a lightness that eased the burdens of all around him,” said Rev. Tucker Fleming, the presiding minister for the graveside service.
“I think Joe was the best of all of us,” said Ford Duncan, now the lone survivor of all the children of Cecil and Martha Duncan. “Maybe he had to be, even though we all spoiled him rotten, especially after our father died when Joe was only four. He wasn’t old enough to even remember him. But he made the most of his life. Some of us stayed around the Phenix City area, but not Joe. He was here less than 20 years and he had been in Huntsville nearly 60 years. But he would always come back to visit, and we all looked forward to that.”
Not surprisingly, the youngest Duncan was one of the most popular students at his high school, Central of Phenix City, where he was known as a bookworm, an avid movie buff, and an accomplished athlete who played most of the varsity sports. He became a standout pitcher for the Red Devils baseball team as a junior and senior. After graduating from Central in 1958, he spent the next four years at the University of Alabama, earning a Bachelors’s degree. Drafted into the U.S. Army in 1961, he served the next two years at such posts as Fort Gordon in Georgia and Fort Bliss in Texas before returning to college for his Master’s degree at Alabama, where he became an eyewitness to history. On a hot June day in 1963, while Duncan watched from his dorm room from across the street, Alabama governor George Wallace “stood in the schoolhouse door” at Foster Auditorium in a failed attempt to halt the integration of the University of Alabama.
Joe used to say he figured the drama of that story was “good training” for his future job at The Huntsville Times. “I guess it was my only claim to fame,” he would say.
He was wrong about that.
