Charles N. Duncan, founder of Bay City’s Duncan’s Outdoor Shop, a World War II veteran and a retired Saginaw Police Department lieutenant, has died. He was 92.
Duncan was a gun-safety educator, a mentor to teens, an animal lover who re-homed stray dogs, and “a teacher at heart,” his loved ones say.
“That’s only barely scratching the surface,” said his daughter Virginia Dall. “His whole life was giving to others.”
Duncan died on Sunday, Oct. 13, at Brian’s House.
Duncan was born on July 20, 1927, in Chicago to the late Harold O. Duncan and Marie L. (Webb) Bolton. After moving to Michigan, he grew up in Grayling, according to his obituary.
He served in the U.S. Marine Corps and was wounded in World War II. In 1947, after his military service, he graduated from Ypsilanti High School.
The following year, Duncan married “the love of his life,” Patricia “Pat” Hope Heric on Oct. 23, according to his obituary. She died on July 17, 2013.
In 1951, Charles Duncan joined the Saginaw Police Department. He formed the Saginaw Valley Pistol League in the early 1950s and served as president for more than 60 years.
In 1960, Duncan and his wife founded Duncan’s Outdoor Shop in their Saginaw home and the couple continued to volunteer at the gun shop even after their youngest son Glenn Duncan took over and moved the business to Bay City.
Duncan’s Outdoor Shop, 501 Salzburg Ave., celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2010. Duncan’s is a full-service gun shop with full-time gunsmiths, a 10-position pistol range, two 50-yard, one 100-yard, and one 200-yard indoor rifle ranges, and an online store, according to the company’s website.
Charles Duncan retired from the Saginaw Police Department as a lieutenant in 1982.
Glenn Duncan said, above all, his father was caring and giving. When he got involved in something, he didn’t just participate, he led the charge and encouraged others to volunteer their time and talents, too, his son said. He made a point to leave things better than when he found them, he added.
“He saw something and he wasn’t going to let it fail, he was going to expand on it and make it better,” Glenn Duncan said.
Dall added, “He passes on that contagious energy.”
The funeral service is at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 20, at the Trahan Funeral Chapel, 256 N. Madison Ave.. Private interment will take place at Elmwood Cemetery in Grayling with military honors.
Visitation is from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and from noon until the 2 p.m. service on Sunday. A Masonic Memorial Service is at 7 p.m. Saturday.
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