Duncan Mitchell

CHICAGO, Ill. - Duncan Mitchell died at his home in Chicago on Dec. 2, 2009, of melanoma. He was 67. He is survived by his wife Connie Denham of Chicago and his daughter H. Sidney Mitchell, her husband, Todd Poret and their daughter, Zoe Poret of Warner, N.H. He is also survived by his brothers, Tom Mitchell of Mason, N.H., and Jeb Mitchell of Wilbraham, Mass. Duncan was born in Connecticut on Groundhog Day. He received a BA in design and an MFA from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Ill.
While an undergraduate at SIU, he studied and worked with R. Buckminister Fuller and was pleased that some of the projects he worked on were included in an exhibit of Dr. Fuller's works at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago last year. In 1973, Duncan moved to Plainfield with his then wife, Marilyn Skoglund, and taught drawing and painting at Goddard College. He was a man blessed with a child's imagination and he was an extraordinarily creative man.

Duncan relocated to Chicago in the early 1980s and worked as a designer/contractor on a number of studio and gallery projects.
He continued to create art his entire life. His pinhole photography was exhibited in several Chicago galleries, including a series created after a trip to the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. He also volunteered his time to a Chicago program for youth and art. In recent years he focused on his music. While an excellent guitar and dobro player, his heart belonged to the fiddle. He played with several bands for dances and in a group that met each Sunday appropriately named "The Jam." Fellow players and dancers were always encouraged by his enthusiasm for the music and he was a very patient teacher. And, he was a joyous dancer.

After a three month trip to Southeast Asia in 2007, he was inspired to go back to school to learn to teach English as a second language. His studies were interrupted by his diagnosis in July of 2009, but he was close to completing another masters degree and had plans to teach. He will be missed.

In February, a celebration of his life will be held in Chicago. All his friends, everywhere, are encouraged to sing or dance or play music in his memory.