He was born on November 7, 1919, near Bolivar, Missouri into a poor rural family. As a child, he grew up in communities where the wealth and excesses of the Roaring Twenties somehow never seemed to trickle down to them. He came of age during the New Deal that helped to lift his family and neighbors up by providing opportunities and jobs. He was the first in a long line of his family to be able to go to college: He received an associate's degree from Texarkana College in 1938. At the age of twenty-two, he enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1941, and served with the 69th Infantry Division as it fought its way across France and Germany. On May 21, 1945, he wrote home:
"Dear Folks,
"There is no more censorship, so you might like to know where I have been. The ship landed at Southampton, England and we were in Winchester, about 30 miles north, until the middle of January. I came to France about two weeks ahead of the rest to get things set up, and managed one short trip to Paris, but could only stay a couple of hours.
"We moved across France in short jumps and went into combat Fed. 11 at Montenau in Belgium. It took us three weeks to fight our way through the Siegfried Line and then about two more weeks to get to the Rhine. We crossed near Remagen and the 69th spearheaded the southern arm of the First Army drive to cut off the Ruhr.
"After taking Cassel, we swung east and spearheaded a long drive to Liepzig and then captured it. Afterward we advanced in the Elbe River where we were the first Americans to meet the Russians.
"I realize that all this is just a lot of names to you, but it will give you some idea of what was going on. My team was with the 271st Infantry Regiment and we spent most of our time out with a major doing intelligence work between the armored spearheads and mopping-up troops. That's about all.
"You all seem to have the wrong idea about my coming home. I don't have enough points to get discharged - and if I do get there, it will only be for a furlough before going to the Pacific - probably 21 days, maybe 30.
"Thanks again for the package. Will try to write again soon.
"Love,
Wilbur"
He was always reticent about his military service and until his recent memorial service, few knew that he was one of the first to appear at the gates of Auschwitz.
His obituary notes that, after he returned from the war, he attended Columbia University where, in 1947, he earned his bachelor's degree in accounting and joined the public accounting firm of Arthur Andersen & Co. in its New York office. He became a manager there in 1951 and was made a general partner in 1956. He also served in various supervisory positions, including Deputy Managing Partner in New York and spent his last three years in Geneva, Switzerland, working with the professional practice in Europe, Africa and the near East. He retired in 1982 but continued to consult on limited financial activities until 1998. When his family was younger, he volunteered as a Sunday school teacher and a Deacon at the First Congregational Church of Darien, Connecticut, served as an elected member of the Darien Board of Finance and became a Cub Scout Leader.
In so very many ways, he epitomized the American Dream: He achieved success, financial independence, traveled frequently and vacationed in Florida. More importantly to him, he was a loving father to three devoted daughters and a son. But he never forgot who he was or where he came from. Until his last days, he remained an unreconstructed Democrat: he understood that the administration of Franklin Roosevelt and the GI Bill enabled him and millions of other Americans to rise out of poverty and to succeed and prosper in an American economy in which the government and the private sector were strong partners, rather than antagonists. He understood, as did Oliver Wendell Holmes, that taxes are the price of civilization; and he endorsed Luke's admonition in the Gospels that to whom much has been given, much is expected in return.
As a person who could grasp the whole and see the big picture, he lamented the avarice that destroyed his beloved Arthur Anderson and wondered frequently aloud why so many businessmen did not understand that the long term needs of our economy - for better jobs, a stronger unions, and a healthy middle class - should never be sacrificed for short-term gains that would ultimately impoverish all of us.
With his death, as with the passing of Sergeant Shriver, America has lost another patriot, albeit one less heralded. Requisat in pace, Wilbur Duncan.
"Dear Folks,
"There is no more censorship, so you might like to know where I have been. The ship landed at Southampton, England and we were in Winchester, about 30 miles north, until the middle of January. I came to France about two weeks ahead of the rest to get things set up, and managed one short trip to Paris, but could only stay a couple of hours.
"We moved across France in short jumps and went into combat Fed. 11 at Montenau in Belgium. It took us three weeks to fight our way through the Siegfried Line and then about two more weeks to get to the Rhine. We crossed near Remagen and the 69th spearheaded the southern arm of the First Army drive to cut off the Ruhr.
"After taking Cassel, we swung east and spearheaded a long drive to Liepzig and then captured it. Afterward we advanced in the Elbe River where we were the first Americans to meet the Russians.
"I realize that all this is just a lot of names to you, but it will give you some idea of what was going on. My team was with the 271st Infantry Regiment and we spent most of our time out with a major doing intelligence work between the armored spearheads and mopping-up troops. That's about all.
"You all seem to have the wrong idea about my coming home. I don't have enough points to get discharged - and if I do get there, it will only be for a furlough before going to the Pacific - probably 21 days, maybe 30.
"Thanks again for the package. Will try to write again soon.
"Love,
Wilbur"
He was always reticent about his military service and until his recent memorial service, few knew that he was one of the first to appear at the gates of Auschwitz.
His obituary notes that, after he returned from the war, he attended Columbia University where, in 1947, he earned his bachelor's degree in accounting and joined the public accounting firm of Arthur Andersen & Co. in its New York office. He became a manager there in 1951 and was made a general partner in 1956. He also served in various supervisory positions, including Deputy Managing Partner in New York and spent his last three years in Geneva, Switzerland, working with the professional practice in Europe, Africa and the near East. He retired in 1982 but continued to consult on limited financial activities until 1998. When his family was younger, he volunteered as a Sunday school teacher and a Deacon at the First Congregational Church of Darien, Connecticut, served as an elected member of the Darien Board of Finance and became a Cub Scout Leader.
In so very many ways, he epitomized the American Dream: He achieved success, financial independence, traveled frequently and vacationed in Florida. More importantly to him, he was a loving father to three devoted daughters and a son. But he never forgot who he was or where he came from. Until his last days, he remained an unreconstructed Democrat: he understood that the administration of Franklin Roosevelt and the GI Bill enabled him and millions of other Americans to rise out of poverty and to succeed and prosper in an American economy in which the government and the private sector were strong partners, rather than antagonists. He understood, as did Oliver Wendell Holmes, that taxes are the price of civilization; and he endorsed Luke's admonition in the Gospels that to whom much has been given, much is expected in return.
As a person who could grasp the whole and see the big picture, he lamented the avarice that destroyed his beloved Arthur Anderson and wondered frequently aloud why so many businessmen did not understand that the long term needs of our economy - for better jobs, a stronger unions, and a healthy middle class - should never be sacrificed for short-term gains that would ultimately impoverish all of us.
With his death, as with the passing of Sergeant Shriver, America has lost another patriot, albeit one less heralded. Requisat in pace, Wilbur Duncan.