Margaret Clayton Duval was born in Atlanta, GA, on May 27, 1950, the daughter of Margaret Clarke Duval of New Orleans, Louisiana, and Fred Burch Duval of Social Circle, GA. Margaret attended E. Rivers Elementary School and graduated from The Westminster Schools. She went on to get her BA at Hollins University in 1972 where she majored in English and graduated Phi Beta Kappa. After college Margaret began what would be a ten-year career with IBM as a Systems Engineer.
In 1975 she married her college boyfriend, Charlie Shufeldt, and moved to Washington, DC where he was completing his Masters Degree at Johns Hopkins SAIS. In 1976 Margaret and Charlie moved to NYC where Margaret continued with IBM and Charlie joined Brown Brothers Harriman. It was in NYC, Brooklyn to be precise, where they started a family and Margaret gave birth to her sons Charlie, in February 1979, and Burch in January 1984.
In 1984 Margaret, Charlie and the boys moved to Atlanta. In 1989, with young Charlie and Burch both in school, Margaret decided to pursue her love of art and art history by enrolling at Emory University, ultimately earning a Masters Degree in Art History and completing all but her dissertation for her PhD. Her studies with the Art History Department and her deep scholarship led to her being offered the position of Curator of Works on Paper at the Carlos Museum, a job she loved and at which she excelled.
Margaret retired from her position at the Carlos in 2013 when she and Charlie moved back to NYC and he went back to work at Brown Brothers Harriman. Her excitement at being back in the Big Apple was not surprising. She loved to travel and spend time in major cities. Whether it was Rome, Paris, London, Vienna, San Francisco, or New York, she would soak up the culture, visit the museums, enjoy the great restaurants and shop.
Margaret brought her intelligence and wit to everything she did. She was a voracious reader and collector of books. Her love of art history and her curatorship of Works on Paper took her deep into everything from the early Renaissance to Mel Bochner. She became an expert on every artist in whom she took an interest. She refused to simply skim the surface.
Along with all of this knowledge of art and literature she somehow also knew more about almost everything from history to religion than anyone else. The fact that she appeared on Jeopardy in 1998 is perhaps an indication of the breadth of her knowledge.
Margaret had impeccable taste. Whether it was art, clothing, jewelry, furniture or interior decorating, she knew what she liked and what she didn’t like and the former was always just right.
She was a proud member of the Cherokee Garden Club, following in her mother’s footsteps. It brought her great pleasure this spring when two of her entries in a GCA regional meeting flower show won two ribbons, including a blue. She loved coming up with beautiful ideas for the garden and watching Charlie attempt to execute them.
It would be an incomplete picture of Margaret, however, not to mention two other defining characteristics. One, she always had a rebellious, bad girl side to her. Whether it was riding off with friends on a motorcycle in Italy when traveling with her cousin or spending more time in Lexington than at Hollins during her college years, she was a free spirit who knew how to have fun. Secondly, she did not suffer fools gladly. If someone didn’t “do right”, she would let them know it. It didn’t mean they weren’t still friends or that she didn’t love them anymore. But Margaret was fearless in her willingness to express her opinions or to speak her mind and no one was spared.
What was absolutely most important of all to Margaret was the happiness of her boys and their families. She loved her boys more than anything in the world. She was so happy when Charlie married Amanda and Burch married Chloe and then so excited when her grandchildren Margaret, Alexa, Charlie, Charlotte and Fred came into the world. She could never get enough of them and near the end of her life so hoped that they would remember her and all of her love for them.
Margaret is survived by her husband Charlie, her son Charlie, his wife Amanda, and their children Margaret, Alexa and Charlotte, her son Burch, his wife Chloe and their children Charlie and Fred. She is also survived by her cousins Robert Coleman and his partner Chris Grubbs, and Alan Duval and his wife Janet.
There will be a service to celebrate Margaret’s life at All Saints Episcopal Church on Wednesday, June 29th at 2:30pm, followed by a reception at the Piedmont Driving Club. In lieu of flowers Margaret would ask you to consider a gift to Emmaus House or All Saints.
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