Denise Ellen Duffy

1957 - 2025

Denise Ellen Duffy
06/06/1957 - 06/27/2025
For most who made her acquaintance, Denise ("D") Duffy, née Stewart, would become the most thoughtful person they would ever know.
Born in Brooklyn on the 13th anniversary of D-Day, she exuded grace and beauty. The eldest child of Pat and Mary Stewart, D cherished lifelong bonds with sister, Tara; brother, Patrick, his wife, Patricia; and an extended family.
Smart, curious, and an excellent swimmer, she thrived at The Mary Lewis Academy in Jamaica, Queens. D later studied at SUNY Binghamton, earning a degree in accounting. After college, iconic Cunard Line, LTD hired her in their NYC offices. She met her future husband, Michael Duffy, at West Point in 1978. They married in 1980, and the next day she flew with him to his first military assignment in Germany, where she was immediately hired in the Army accounting office. Within 3 years, she was the Supervisory Accountant of the unit.
After returning to the US from Germany in 1983, V V K R engineers hired D as their controller in Alexandria, VA. She studied for and passed the CPA exam in a single sitting. In 1988, D was hired as the controller at Flack + Kurtz engineers and then hired as the Chief Financial Officer ("CFO") at Beyer Blinder Belle ("BBB") in NYC. She was a trusted, reliable business leader and friend. She served almost 30 years as CFO at BBB-including a span of internationally "remote" work from Spain during Michael's post-Army career-until her retirement in 2018.
Her career and life travels spanned the globe: 25 moves, over 120 countries, and friends in every port. She also navigated 12 years of health challenges alongside MD Anderson Cancer Center's team of unparalleled cancer specialists in Texas. In retirement, D served on MDA Patient Family Advisory Program Board and its Ethics Advisory Board, advocating for others-even (and especially) while a patient herself.
Deeply grateful and devoid of self-pity, D's irrepressible happiness continued unabated during years of recovery and rehabilitation, through the morning of her unexpected but gentle passing midday on June 27, 2025. In lieu of flowers/gifts, D requests donations be made to the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, on-line at https://gifts.mdanderson.org/ and directed to support the work of Drs. Carlos Kamiya Matsuoka, Franco DeMonte, and Matthew Hanasono-whose collective skills kept D vibrant and with us for more than a decade. Our beloved Denise's ashes will be placed in the columbarium at Arlington National Cemetery in VA.