Duncan Yves McKiernan

1925 - 2018

Duncan Yves McKiernan, age 93, died July 11, 2018, at his home on East Eighth Street.

Duncan was born on West Eighth Street in 1925 to Ulysses and Jessie McKiernan.

Enlisting in the Marines at 17, Duncan served as a radioman in the Pacific campaign during WWII. He experienced hand to hand combat before he was 18 and was wounded by a grenade at the Battle of Leyte. After the war ended he returned home to Port Angeles and completed high school.

Duncan moved to Aberdeen where he married and raised two children while building the 42-foot old-school construction and style wooden schooner, Windolee. Due to the cost of the many metal parts, he also taught himself bronze casting, and made all of the pieces. The Windolee was such a masterpiece that it has appeared on calendars, postcards, etc., and was featured in the movie Franklin and Eleanor. Duncan had very little sailing experience, but nevertheless sailed out of Aberdeen with wife, daughter and a friend as crew, none of whom were experienced. It was a major accomplishment that during three years of sailing adventures in the Pacific no injuries or accidents occurred.

Eventually Duncan returned to Port Angeles. In 1975, he built the house on East Eighth Street and a bronze foundry using the skills developed in building the Windolee.

Duncan became the founding director of the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center and actively promoted the arts around the Olympic Peninsula. Duncan's bronze "Cormorants" are installed at City Pier, and his "Peninsula Cougar" can be seen at City Hall. Duncan has several other pieces of his art such as the "Peace through Trade" bell found installed around Port Angeles. Duncan drew nationally renowned artists to the Fine Arts Center while working to foster an appreciation for the arts on the Olympic Peninsula throughout his final 43 years in Port Angeles.

Duncan married his third wife Margaret, better known as Peach in 1988, long after they first met at Port Angeles High school. As an artist herself, she and Duncan enjoyed many creative and fun-filled years.

Duncan is preceded in death by Peach, his daughter Marcie and his son Aaron.

He is survived by daughter Elaine and daughter-in-law Meegan along with two grandchildren residing in Washington and a third grandchild living in Colorado.

Duncan was remembered in a private family ceremony of his life and works July 24.
Duncan leaves behind many friends and acquaintances gained over a long life of creativity, conversation, and living a life rich in appreciation for the land and wildlife of the northwest. Duncan's granddaughter fondly remembers, "One of my first gifts, as a young child with a sprouting mind, was a camera; not a fancy Nikon SLR, rather it was just a cheap, nearly disposable camera. Yet this gift from my grandpa was a portal, not only to the importance of self- expression but also to the brevity and connectivity with and to the life which pulsates in everything from needles dancing in the sun on a wet Northwest cedar, to salmon still returning to spawn in the Elwha River, and cougars prowling the Olympic Mountains, and especially to seeing the world as a boundless kaleidoscope. Through this limitless portal, my grandpa shared a secret of the universe: to see beauty truly is to love."