Harold Ray Duke

Harold Ray Duke passed away on February 22, 2023, at home. Harold was born on January 14, 1940 in Rotan, TX to Hubert T. Duke and Lela Pearl (Lea) Cox. His father was a Texas Agricultural Extension Agent until the beginning of World War II, when his Army Reserve Officer's commission was activated. Harold and his mother followed Hubert to assignments as a Motor Pool Training officer at posts in Georgia, California and Arkansas. After the war, they returned to the same county where his dad was born and raised, in the Panhandle of Texas. This is also where his parents bought a farm and dug an irrigation well. Harold attended a two-room school in Wayside, Texas and then transferred to one in Happy, Texas. When he was eight years old, he began feeding steers in 4-H Club and won several county and state honors. After finishing 8th grade, Harold and his younger sister, Jorja, transferred to a larger school in Tulia, TX and the family moved to another farm outside that town. He graduated from Tulia High School, second in his class of 72, and enrolled in Texas Tech where he studied Agricultural Engineering. He was elected to scholastic honor societies Sigma Xi, Phi Kappa Phi, and Alpha Zeta. In January 1963, he completed his BS at the top of the Agricultural College.

In June 1963, he began a Graduate Assistantship at Colorado State University to pursue a Master's, also in Agricultural Engineering. Upon completing his MS in January 1965, he joined the faculty of Civil Engineering as a team member developing the first computer model of a groundwater aquifer and headed the statewide groundwater monitoring network. After starting with Civil Engineering, he met Juanita Eychner, a third-generation native of Fort Collins, and they married in December 1966. The following spring, he was offered a position as Research Engineer with the Agricultural Research Service of US Department of Agriculture in Fort Collins. That same fall, he began work on a PhD, also in Agricultural Engineering, which he completed in August 1972. Over his 35-year career with the USDA, he was involved in research with animal feedlot waste management, surface irrigation research, and center pivot sprinkler irrigation management, resulting in more than 140 professional papers. He was given several federal awards for his work, culminating in election as a Fellow of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers.

Harold served on the Graduate Faculty at CSU from 1966 until his retirement from USDA in 2002, providing guidance to more than 100 MS and PhD students in Ag Engineering, Civil Engineering, Soil and Crop Science, Horticulture, Geology and Forestry. He was one of the founders of the statewide Colorado Ag Meteorology Network of automated weather stations used to provide irrigation management advice to farmers and was involved in planning numerous facilities on CSU Campus, including Agricultural Engineering Research Center; Agricultural Research, Development and Education Center; the USDA-ARS research complex on Centre Avenue and irrigation systems at research sites at Greeley and Miles City, MT.

Harold also served as Cub Scout Master for four years while his sons were in Scouts, was a Reserve Officer of Fort Collins Police Department in the late 1960’s, and was active in his engineering professional society, elected to Fellow in 2002. In his retirement years, he spent a large portion of his spare time researching the history of his ancestors, nearly all of whom came from England to the early Colonies, then migrated south to the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, and eventually to Texas. With this research, he wrote several books and created detailed family trees.

Harold was not only a quiet, humble, scholarly man; he was also a devoted, loving, witty, talented husband, father, and grandfather. He enjoyed being outdoors - whether it was working on his property, in the garden, or in the mountains fishing and camping with his family. He also enjoyed woodworking on his lathe and making useful items for his children and grandchildren.

Harold and Nita raised three children, Don (Cheryl) Duke of Fort Collins, Karysa Duke-McIntire of Fort Collins, and Kenneth (Tisha) Duke of Loveland. He was preceded in death by his parents, and is survived by his wife, Nita, his children Don, Karysa, and Ken, sister Jorja (Dwight) Currie of Bennington, OK, grandchildren Jacob, Danika, Sarah, Colton, Julia, Peyton, Harley, and several nieces and nephews.

There will be a Celebration of Harold’s life on Saturday, March 18th, 2023 at the Duke Family Home in Fort Collins, CO. Open House 1-4pm.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the National Kidney Fund or Parkinson’s Foundation.