Obituary of Doyal Fred Duncan

 Doyal Fred Duncan, 83, of Avery, died Friday, May 18, 2018 at home. He was born in Avery, July 22, 1934, the only child of Fred and Myrtle (Dendy) Duncan. He graduated from Avery High School in 1951 and then attended Tyler Business College. On December 25, 1954, he married LaVerne Chapman.

He began working for the Santa Fe railway in 1952 as extra gang timekeeper in Fort Worth. Afterward, he served as secretary to the superintendent at Slaton for five years before being appointed secretary to the assistant general manager at Amarillo in 1961. He also served as secretary to the general manager. In 1962, he was transferred to Chicago as traveling car agent. He was promoted to transportation inspector at Wellington, Kansas in 1964 and to safety supervisor at Slaton, TX in 1969. He was acting assistant trainmaster at Amarillo, and acting trainmaster at Carlsbad, New Mexico before his promotion to trainmaster at Brownwood, in 1970. In 1973, he was promoted to assistant superintendent at Carlsbad, New Mexico, and in 1976, he was promoted to superintendent at Clovis, New Mexico. In 1978, he transferred to Newton, Kansas, where he was superintendent for the Middle Division. He retired there in 1989, at which time he held the position of division manager, supervising over 3,000 employees in the largest division of the Santa Fe. He was a graduate of the Santa Fe-sponsored Institute of Business, Economics at USC, Los Angeles, California.

After his retirement, he returned to Avery and began a second career raising Longhorn cattle. He spent his free time competition trap shooting. In the over 50 years that he spent in the sport, he had 222,450 registered competition targets. In 2002, he was awarded membership to the Texas State Trap team for having the highest average scores across all ATA events for his age bracket. He competed in the Champion of Champions event in Vandalia Ohio. He competed locally as well as nationally and developed friendships with shooters from coast to coast.  .

He is survived by his wife of 63 years, LaVerne; two children: daughter Kathy Duncan and son-in-law Peter Selph, son Kevin Duncan and daughter-in-law Ann Duncan; four grandchildren: Matthew Duncan-Selph, Sara Duncan-Selph, William S. Duncan, and Alexis Duncan; one great-granddaughter: MacKenzie Rose Egan. He was member of the Avery United Methodist Church.

Memorial services are set for 10:30 a.m., Saturday, June 2, 2018, at the Avery United Methodist Church with Rev. Jack Cloyd officiating.    Services are under the direction of Clarksville Funeral Home.

Honorary Pallbearers are, James Bain, Michael Baird, Ronald  Braden, Lee Caldwell, Tilman Deaton, Bruce Duncan, Doug Gortney, Duel Grigg, Blake Jackson, Dalton Jackson, Carl Kennedy, David Joyner, Anthony Tucker, John Oce Williams, Jr., Brad Deaton and  Trey Williams.

In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the Lord’s Acre of Avery United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 308, Avery, 75554.