Birth date: Jan 13, 1951 Death date: Jul 14, 2018
Danny Jay Duncan 1951-2018 Danny Jay Duncan passed away Saturday, July 14, 2018 in his Spanish Fork home, where he resided with his daughter Britney and her husband Lance Clark. He was born December 13, 1951 in Idaho Falls, ID to Read Obituary
I am very sorry to hear that Danny has died. My condolences to the entire family. All of my brothers and sisters and especially my 90 year old mother, Leila Walker, will be sad to hear that he has passed away. Danny was always so good and kind to all the members of my family. My parents loved to have him visit our home. But we are firm in our testimony of the resurrection and we will look forward to seeing Danny again.
Danny has been my close friend since high school. I moved to Orem, Utah, in our junior year. I was less than a month older than Danny. Danny and I were both in Mrs. Morris's English Class and Mr. Schroeder's chemistry class. We hit it off immediately.
We both liked cars. Our first project together was retrieving a 1958 Ford Fairlane two-door hardtop from a farmer's field down in Vineyard. The car had a good body and paint but needed a new engine. Danny had purchased the car and he recruited me to help him tow it to his house on 800 East in Orem. We had to jack up the car and change all the tires before we could tow it out of the field. We were out in a field of knee high grass and everything was difficult. Danny would grinch and grumble and then look up and say, "yeah, but look at all the fun you are having." And then we would laugh. Danny fixed up that car and drove it during high school. I wish we still had that car.
Danny's niece, Dorothy, is exactly right about Danny -- he could communicate with his close friends with a look or a gesture. He had a repertoire of faces and gestures. He loved to perform and was in plays and performances. Like many good friends we would sometimes spin stories about situations until they were ridiculous and funny. "And then this would happen, and then that would happen." The difference with Danny was that after we had pushed the story to the limit, he would act it out. We had too much fun together. I once got him in trouble in Mrs. Morris's English class when we were supposed to be reading novels on our own. Danny gave me a hard time because I had a crush on the girl who sat in the next row. Danny turned around and looked at me from several seats ahead of me. I made a face and pretended to be staring at Debra and Danny collapsed in laughter. He was suddenly laughing out loud in a quiet classroom for no apparent reason.
In our chemistry class, Mr. Schroeder would give us an assignment and then turn off his hearing aid and prepare tax returns for clients of his side business as an accountant. Sometimes the almost completely male class of students would get rowdy and shoot spit wads at each other with rubber bands. Danny and I escalated the arms race by folding entire sheets of notebook paper into giant wads and launching them with a piece of surgical tubing used like a sling shot.
Lest you think that we were hopeless slackers and ne'er-do-wells, we both got good grades and were accepted by BYU. Danny was something of a star in the Speech and drama department at Orem High and played the lead in the school play his senior year, Lilies of the Field. That is right -- he was a golden blonde, white, Sidney Portier. Because of his influence I tried out and was hilariously cast as an hispanic catholic priest. Danny was really good in the play. He was so earnest when he was trying to do something well.
Danny Duncan was a person worth knowing. He was and is my great friend.
J. Grant Walker
480-747-3121
[email protected]
Danny was a high school friend. I had a few classes with him. He was so nice and fun. He had a lot of friends. I looked up to the cute couple he and Shelly were. Sorry to here of his death. Prayers for his family!
My wife and I only knew Brother Duncan (Danny) for a year or so during the last years of his life. We had common ancestors so enjoyed making those connections and talking about Molen and Ferron, Utah. He was one of the few people who even know where those little towns are that I grew up in. We liked visiting him because he was always so welcoming to us. We hope we provided a little diversion to his confined living but we know we always felt better after a visit with Brother Duncan.
My favorite memories of Uncle Dan were stories my dad and Dan would tell us kids camping. My Dad (George) & Uncle Danny are brothers. The two of them would sit around the campfire and try to tell us kids (cousins) stories about them growing up. They would hardly be able to tell the story because the two of them would be laughing so hard. They seemed to cause a lot of mischief in their younger days. I remember us kids getting into poison Ivy, falling into streams, & checking each other for tics. I don’t know how these two grown men cared for us kids camping without a “Mom” around, but they did and I think we had a lot more adventures because of it. I am happy to know they are together again sharing stories, only the two of them know what the other is saying between laughs & gestures.❤️
