Robert F. Duncan Dies in Chicago

Robert F. Duncan '12, a fund-raiser for Harvard and other private institutions for over 65 years, died Friday in Chicago. He was 84.

During his lifetime, Duncan served as assistant manager of the Harvard Endowment Fund, was instrumental in many large University fund drives, was actively involved in the Class of '12 alumni affairs and was a founding trustee of the Institute for Educational Management, which became part of Harvard in 1973.

The former Harvard Crimson president was born in Clinton on November 26, 1889. He lived in Concord, but commuted to Cambridge by train three or four days a week last winter and spring as co-chairman of the Harvard Crimson Development Fund.

Duncan was also an avid yachtsman and mountain climber.

He was in Chicago to speak before the American Association of Fund Raising Counsel, a group with which he has worked closely in recent years in his attempts to improve the fundraising profession.