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Ray Duncan, ski area founder, dies

Purgatory pioneer, vintner dies at 84

Purgatory Resort will celebrate its 50th anniversary this year, but the community institution and winter economic driver might never have come to be without founder Raymond Twomey Duncan. He died Friday at his home in Denver at age 84.

Duncan had moved to Durango with his family in 1958, where he founded Duncan Oil.

A chance remark in 1964 that it was a shame Durango’s youth ski team, which was starting to win some awards, didn’t have a good place to practice led to a major commitment.

A year later, he had navigated U.S. Forest Service and Small Business Administration bureaucracies, encouraged a local group of businessmen to form the San Juan Development Corp. to help finance the endeavor, and hired Chester “Chet” Anderson to serve as general manager.

Then they had to come up with a name.

“I think it was me and Joan Duncan and Ray Duncan,” Anderson said. “We sat down to discuss it, and we had a list of three possibilities: Hermosa, Columbine or Purgatory (based on Purgatory Creek). We decided Purgatory was spicier, not as bland.”

Duncan had set an aggressive schedule, but the weather did not cooperate. Anderson spent his first day in May on snowshoes laying out ski trails, and six weeks later, as he finished the job, he was still on snowshoes.

It rained all summer, so that by the second week of August, rainfall for the summer hit 14 inches, 8 inches above normal. In 2009, as he was being inducted into the Durango Winter Sports Hall of Fame, Duncan said he remembered once being very discouraged by all the setbacks in founding the ski area.

“I began wavering in my resolve, wondering if this was a dream that was not meant to be,” he said. “I was walking down Main (Avenue) with Dolph Kuss, who told me one day, 50,000 skiers would be walking down that street.”

He remembered one of his missteps, when he offered 10 percent discounts on season passes to members of the Durango Ski Club, a predecessor to the Durango Winter Sports Foundation. All the local skiers joined the club, so they all got the discount.

The impact of Purgatory on Durango was greater than providing a place to ski. Durango’s tourist season essentially lasted from Memorial Day to Labor Day before 1965, so the addition of five months of revenues ramped up all kinds of businesses. Having a ski area nearby also turned out to be a good recruiting tool – both for students and faculty – for Fort Lewis College.

To increase the summer season at Purgatory, Duncan was instrumental in the founding of Music in the Mountains, which is going into its 30th year, as well as Crow Canyon Archaeological Center.

The Duncan family moved to Denver in 1967, where Duncan further pursued the oil and gas business.

“There’s a lot of fun to be had in developing something and making it the best you can to the limits of your ability,” he told The Denver Post in 1986, when he stepped down as principal owner of Purgatory as his brother Vincent bought most of his share. “I function as a fully committed partner in both concern about the operation and pride in the result.”

Born to Velma Twomey and Walter Duncan Sr. in South Bend, Indiana, in 1930, Duncan graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1952 with a degree in philosophy. He joined the Marine Corps and fought in the Korean War, ending his military career with the rank of captain.

In 1970, he accepted an invitation to visit the Napa Valley, which led to his next interest, Silver Oak Winery. Partnering with winemaker Justin Meyer after an “agreement over a case of beer and a handshake,” the two decided to undertake a single-minded pursuit of cabernet sauvignon, unusual at the time.

His sons Tim and David Duncan now maintain his philosophy of constant improvement to preserve the winery for future generations.

A number of Durango nonprofits have received bottles of Silver Oak wines for their events and auctions.

In 2008, Duncan endowed a men’s residence hall at Notre Dame. This year, with support from Duncan and his family, the university broke ground on the Duncan Student Center, a 400,000-square-foot facility that will be completed in 2017.

abutler@durangoherald.com

Raymond Twomey Duncan

No memorial service has been scheduled at this time.

Raymond Twomey Duncan married Sally Folwell on July 4, 1988, at the family’s Diamond Tail Ranch in Colorado.

He is survived by his wife of 27 years, Sally Duncan; their six children; and 16 grandchildren.

During his life, Duncan received numerous honors. He was named Wildcatter of the Year in 1998 by the Independent Petroleum Association of the Mountain States and, in 2004, was inducted into the Rocky Mountain Oil & Gas Hall of Fame. In 2006, he was inducted into the Colorado Ski Hall of Fame and, in 2012, into the Colorado Business Hall of Fame.

He maintained a cabin at Electra Lake and was a frequent visitor to Southwest Colorado after moving to Denver in 1967.



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