John Hamilton Duncan, 79, passed away on Dec. 18, 2024 at Novant Medical Center in Matthews, North Carolina, after a brief illness.

John was born in Concord, Massachusetts, on Jan. 3, 1945, to the late Roger Fenn Duncan and Mary Chandler Duncan. He was raised in Concord with his older twin brothers, Dr. William Duncan of Colorado and Bayville, Maine and the late Robert Duncan.

The boys attended The Belmont Hill School where their father taught English in the Upper School and was Assistant Headmaster and later Headmaster. John was on the varsity football team, a sport that has been a life-long passion.

Summers were spent in Southport, Maine, where grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins gathered each summer. John’s family resided in a cabin in the woods across from his grandparent’s ocean-front cottage on Blair Road affectionately known as the “Manse.”

Captain Roger Duncan, with his boys and wife as crew, sailed the family’s Friendship sloop, Eastward, a popular tourist attraction, out of Boothbay Harbor. John, affectionally known as Beano, enjoyed competitive ocean sailing and with Norma Smith, developed the Junior Sailing Program at the Southport Yacht Club while still in his teens. Sixty years later a trophy bears John’s name.

John’s passion for design began in the early 50s while visiting the studio of Murray Peterson, the designer of Eastward. This led to a bachelor of arts in architecture from Harvard University and a master of architecture from Washington University in St. Louis.

Learning of the design opportunities in the burgeoning Sunbelt, in 1970. he joined J. N. Pease Associates, a 120-person architectural-engineering firm in Charlotte, N.C. As an architect, project manager, and president, John led the firm for the next 40 years in the design of complex governmental, institutional, educational and corporate facilities.

Some of these projects include the United States Embassy in Doha, Qatar, University of NC Cancer Research Center, Appalachian State University Library, federal, state and county justice facilities, corporate facilities for Duke Power Company and Allstate Insurance Company, NC Department of Revenue Building, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center, NC Central Prison, NC State Supreme Court, Asheville Federal Courthouse, the planning and creation of the new campus at UNC Charlotte and the design of the School of Nursing and Science and Technology Building at the University.

John served as chair of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Art Commission as well as a member of the American Institute of Architects, and the National Architecture for Justice Committee, He was a lecturer at the School of Architecture at UNC-Charlotte, and the winner of over 20 design awards.

A favorite part of his practice was traveling to communities in western North Carolina to design schools, libraries, jails and courthouses. In 2000, John and his wife, Carol, purchased property in Ashe County, NC, near the community of West Jefferson. There, at 3,400 feet, he designed a log cabin that was their home until his death. John was an expert carpenter and craftsman constructing additions to the cabin, outbuildings, rock walls, and terraces.

Each summer John would return to Maine to spend time in the “Manse” that he now shared with other family members. In early summer 2024, John and Carol rented a house in Charlotte so he could be closer to medical care; yet he was able to make one last trip to Maine in August.

John is survived by his wife of 37 years, Carol Collier Duncan. Carol was a colleague at J.N. Pease Associates, serving as the firm’s Marketing Manager.

John was blessed to have three children with his former wife Jane Crutchfield Garrison (deceased). They are Cameron Duncan of Coventry, Rhode Island (Lynn), Chandler Duncan of Gastonia, N.C. (Alaina) and Mary Katherine Duncan of Kannapolis, N.C. He has enjoyed a loving relationship with Carol’s children, Mary Shah of Alpharetta, Georgia (Gregory), Collier Willis of Durham, N.C., and David Willis of Charlotte, N.C. (Amanda). John found great joy in his grandchildren Christopher and McKenzie Duncan of Coventry, R.I. and Olivia Duncan of Gastonia, N.C., as well as Carol’s five grandchildren, Rachel Moore (Welford) of Greenville, South Carolina, Andrew Shah of New York City, and Betsy, Eli, and Maeve Willis of Charlotte, N.C.

John came to know the grace of God in1980 while a patient at Mercy Hospital during a visit by a Sister of Mercy. He carried the prayer card she gave him that night in his wallet until his death.

A celebration of John’s life will be held at Myers Park Baptist Church on Saturday, Feb. 8 at 1 p.m. in the church sanctuary. Family will receive visitors after the service. Interment will be held in August at Spruce Lawn Cemetery in Southport.

The family asks that in lieu of flowers donations be made to the J. N. Pease Scholarship Fund, at the University of North Carolina School of Architecture, 9201 University City Boulevard, Charlotte, NC 28223-0001 or the Southport Yacht Club Junior Sailing Foundation, P.O. Box 68, Southport, ME 04576.