Carol Duncan. (Courtesy Alison Duncan)
LOWELL — Philanthropist, advocate, activist, traveler and role model. These were some of the many ways in which family, friends and colleagues of Carol Duncan described her in the two weeks since she lost her battle with ovarian cancer June 23 at the age of 81.
Carol Duncan was involved in the Greater Lowell community in about as many ways as she possibly could over the course of many decades of her adult life. From her time as an English teacher in Dracut to serving as the executive director of Girls Inc. for 22 years, those close to Carol Duncan said she spent much of her time in service to others.
“What really shines through with her is that she is a mentor,” said her daughter, Alison Duncan. “She was just this remarkable woman who you could count on for any cause.”
Carol’s husband, George Duncan, and Alison Duncan both remembered Carol as quick witted and highly intelligent, and as someone who was always finding ways to help people, especially young women and girls.
“She really believed in the theory that if you educate a man, you educate one person, but if you educate a woman, you have the possibility of educating an entire family,” said George Duncan. “I always think of the young women whose lives she has affected, at Girls Inc. in particular. She was able to contribute so much to being able to provide them with some direction.”
Alison Duncan said that a childhood friend of hers, who went on to obtain a doctorate, reached out after hearing of her mother’s passing, and said that Carol Duncan was her role model growing up.
“It is really amazing to see this outpouring of how much she impacted people. We have a lot of people saying that they wouldn’t be the same person without her,” said Alison Duncan.
George Duncan, the founder of Enterprise Bank, recalled that it was his wife who helped the most to come up with the name, and even the color scheme, for the new financial institution. When putting together a brief with his attorney ahead of opening the bank, George said they couldn’t decide on a name. The focus at the time was on being a bank for small businesses and business loans, which Carol said should be reflected in the name. She then walked over to a thesaurus and turned to “business,” quickly finding “enterprise” as a synonym.
“That’s a good name,” George Duncan recalled his wife saying, and that was that.
Alison and George remembered Carol as an avid reader, diligently reading everything in their library and at one point, George recalled, going through the last 50 years of National Geographic issues, and getting a lot of good travel information out of it.
“She really just had a thirst for knowledge and travel, and knowing what is going on in the world, and it benefited a lot of people, and our family,” said George Duncan.
Those who worked with her felt similarly. Carol Duncan served on the Whistler House Museum of Art’s Board of Directors from 2014 to 2020. Whistler House President and Executive Director Sara Bogosian said that she had known Carol Duncan for 26 years, both at the Whistler House and in Girls Inc. Bogosian described her as “the quintessential role model for women in our community.”
“I had the pleasure of working with her many times, in particular at the Merrimack Repertory Theatre, and as one of her board members at Girls Inc. When she retired we had the pleasure of having her join the Whistler House Board of Trustees,” said Bogosian. “She always added her own brand of researched knowledge and well-studied experience to whatever she did.”
Bopha Malone is the executive director of Girls Inc. of Greater Lowell, the girls empowerment organization Carol Duncan served as executive director of for more than two decades. Duncan was a mentor to Malone, who herself worked at Enterprise Bank for 16 years.
“Personally, and professionally, I wouldn’t be where I am today if not for Carol’s support and mentorship,” said Malone.
Even after she retired from Girls Inc. in 2013, Malone said Duncan continued her involvement as a trustee and served on the capital campaign committee to expand their building at 228 Worthen St.
“With her support, we have been able to raise $2,700,000 out of our $3 million campaign goal. As I took on the role of ED here, she agreed to serve as an advisory member to me to help me rebuild Girls Inc Lowell and to continue to make this place a beacon of hope for girls,” Malone said in a written statement.
To continue Duncan’s legacy, Malone said that the Girls Inc. building at 220 Worthen St. will be named after her.
For 23 years, Duncan chaired the Pollard Memorial Library Foundation and served on its Board of Trustees. Board of Trustees Chair Donna Richards, who served with Duncan on the library foundation, said that Duncan was “a truly special person.”
“Carol was particularly good at recognizing the need for fundraising and actively volunteered organizing the annual Author Night event and the Fall Appeal. What impressed me most was that Carol was a worker not just a delegator, she stamped and stuffed envelopes with the rest of us,” Richards said in a written statement. “Carol really loved the Pollard Memorial Library and appreciated the value of our library to the residents of Lowell. Her involvement, leadership, and generosity have ensured the future of our local treasure.”
Bob Gillman also served on the library’s Board of Trustees with Duncan, and said she was always “a big-picture thinker,” and somebody who could always get the ball rolling.
“She made the city she lived in a better place to live,” said Gillman. “She helped us finance things that weren’t included in the city budget. Things like renovating the paintings in the library. She bought things to supplement the city’s effort. She bought books to help the Portuguese and Asian communities. Things the city normally wouldn’t do.”
Gillman said Duncan was inclusive in her approach to everything she did, and treated everyone around her as an equal.
“Her involvement in all of these far ranging committees and with Girls Inc. made Lowell a better place for the people who participated,” said Gillman.
Community Teamwork Inc. is an organization in Lowell that works to secure resources to low-income people and help them gain stability in their lives. CTI CEO Karen Frederick had known Duncan for about 45 years, going back to when Frederick first started out at the organization. In more than four decades of knowing Duncan, Frederick said that she was “an inspiring woman.”
“I know how much her philanthropy, her time and her interest made a difference to all of us, and it has made us, certainly, such a better community,” said Frederick. “She really had such varied interests from the arts to nonprofits. As she ran Girls Inc., I ran Community Teamwork. Working with her, she was always a good partner.”
Among her many, many other contributions and endeavors, Duncan served on the Girls Inc. National Board of Directors, the Board of Governors of the American Society for Clinical Pathology, the Advisory Board of Women in Science and Engineering at UMass Lowell, and worked with Ironstone Farm and served on its Board of Trustees.
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