A long-time fixture in the Linfield community – James “Jim” A. Duke ’58 – died on March 10, 2022. The McMinnville resident retired in 1998 after a 30-year career in the Linfield Department of Psychology.
Duke earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology from Linfield and went on to receive his M.A. and Ph.D. from Texas Christian University, specializing in human factors psychology. He returned to Linfield as a faculty member in 1968. During his tenure, Duke was an active researcher, eventually expanding his field of study to include cognitive psychology, served as department chair and championed undergraduate research.
Duke and wife Lucita ’71 were active members of First Baptist Church and the McMinnville community and volunteered for Habitat for Humanity and St. Barnabas Soup Kitchen, among other local institutions.
His name is permanently etched on different corners of the McMinnville campus – in the brick stones celebrating the school’s sesquicentennial outside of Walker Hall and on the psychology lab named for him in Pioneer Hall. But more importantly, friends and former colleagues say, Professor Emeritus Duke has his name permanently imprinted on the minds and hearts of decades of Linfield students.
