Owen Duncan lived life to the fullest.

An historian who had deep respect for the traditions and ideas of the past, he also jumped into the future. Born in 1940, during WW II, he celebrated his 80th birthday with a drive by card shower as COVID took hold. Within weeks, his social schedule was filled with Zoom coffee groups, Zoom trivia, Zoom book clubs and even a Zoom wine night.

Owen Lowe Duncan Jr. was the oldest of three sons of Owen Lowe and Dorothy (Sammons) Duncan. He grew up in Huntington, W. Va., where a stint driving a truck for his father's lumber business — Duncan Box and Co. — convinced him to continue his education.

He graduated from Huntington High, then attended Marshall University on a full ride tennis scholarship and studied history. He pledged the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity while there, and always worked to embody the mission of the True Gentleman.

At arshall, he met a beautiful young woman named Karen Johnson. His collected works of Shakespeare has her name and phone number written in the front cover.

After graduation, the two married and moved to Ohio where they taught school and their first daughter, Amy Duncan, was born. Eventually they moved to Columbus, Ohio, where he attended THE Ohio State and received masters and PhD's in history.

Owen promised Karen he would only look at jobs at colleges East of the Mississippi but "accidentally" used his last two sheets of resume paper to apply to two colleges in Iowa. One went out of business. The other was Simpson, where the family found a home. Their second daughter, Lora, was born not long after. He always remembered moving into one of Bob Downing's early new constructions and when he went to look at it, he found Bob grouting the bathtub.

Everyone was young then.

He came to Simpson with a band of young professors, including Roger Betsworth, Bruce Haddox, Norm Thomas, Todd Lieber and others, who became friends as well as coworkers. In those early years, they confronted social issues as the campus hotly debated the Vietnam War, and financial ones as the college skated perilously close to bankruptcy. He had a lifelong admiration of Bob McBride, who he credited with saving the college.

The group helped to create Simpson's Cornerstone's Study program, one of his proudest achievements. Later, John Epperson and Bill Friedricks joined the group.

"If ever there was a fit between a professor and a college, Duncan and Simpson were a splendid match," wrote Joe Walt in his history of Simpson College.

The family settled into home at 1008 North Howard St., the center of the family's life for many, many years. It was there that Karen typed his dissertation on a manual typewriter, eventually graduating to an electric. The dissertation, which explored the life of an obscure 17th century English courtier named Sir Henry Neville, was dedicated to his dad, who he said supported what he was doing even when he didn't understand it.

That is the gift Owen gave his own family, supporting us in all of our crazy ideas, even when he didn't completely understand them.

In 2008 Karen began to show signs of dementia. He cared for her throughout her illness until her death in 2011

He was an early riser, she loved to sleep in, a trait that became more pronounced during her illness. Every morning, he left her one of her favorite donuts and a cup of coffee on the table, ready for when she awoke, whether it was time for breakfast or lunch.

After Karen's death, and the loss of his mentor and friend Joe Walt, Lisa Bell took a new importance in his life. For a few years the two had a long-distance relationship, her in Florida and him in Iowa. They talked often, visited regularly and sometimes saw the same movie at the same time and texting comments back and forth.

When Lisa moved to Iowa she became a regular with dad at Lora's dinner table and a deeply important part of life for Owen, Isabella and all of us. We are so grateful for the love and companionship the two of them shared and the joy that Lisa brought to his life and ours.

He loved Amy and Lora and his sons in law Mark Davitt and James Patton, but his grandchildren — Elizabeth, Duncan and Isabella — were his pride and joy. He delighted in Elizabeth's love of nature and hiking and cherished the photos she sent back of her adventures. He ruined his shoulder playing catch with Duncan but would have counted it well worth it, even if Duncan hadn't made baseball his career. He was just as proud of Duncan's degree in history from the University of Iowa as he was of Duncan's slider. And he spent the last Saturday of his life following Isabella and cheering her on as she ran her first half marathon — 13.1 miles on the 10th day of her 13th year.

He captured everyone's activities in photos, from his family and friends to the furry friends he loved so much throughout his life, including Lora and Amy's dogs, Banks, Teddy and Tula, and his own fur buddy, Clyde, who was his close companion and the bane of his existence the last couple of years. His last pictures were of Isabella as she finished her race, a moment he shared in joys and concerns at Trinity United Presbyterian Church, one of the other places that added richness to his life. He loved the Sunday School class he taught for many years and treasured the amazing choir and organ music he heard almost every Sunday.

Owen died at Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines on March 21, 2025. His family is grateful to the Indianola Emergency Medical team that transported him to the hospital, as well as the emergency room, intensive care, and surgical teams that cared for him and about him.

He is survived by his daughters and their spouses, Amy Duncan and Mark Davitt, and Lora and James Patton and grandchildren Elizabeth Davitt, Duncan Davitt, his fiancée Emily Young, and Isabella Patton, his companion Lisa Bell, and his brother, Jim Duncan of Huntington W. Va., his sisters in law, Sally McCaskey of Hilton Head, South Carolina; Sandy Haeberle of Silverdale, Washington; and several nieces and nephews, and of course, his cat, Clyde,

He was preceded in death by his wife, Karen, his parents, Owen Duncan and Dorothy Sammons, and his brother Forrest (Sam) Duncan.

Memorials in memory of Owen may be given to Simpson College, Trinity United Presbyterian Church or Kiya Koda Humane Society's building fund.

Visitation will be held Thursday, March 27, from 4 to 7 p.m. at Overton Funeral Home in Indianola. Funeral services will be Friday, March 28, at 10:30 a.m. at Trinity United Presbyterian Church in Indianola.