Paul Tyler Duncan

Paul spent his early life in Indianapolis. While in junior high, his parents relocated to Houston, TX, for his father’s job. After graduating from Spring Branch High School in 1955, Paul was a lifeguard and began working for Houston Light & Power.

Still close with many of his high school buddies, his good friend Thomas had a sister named Sally. Sally was friends with Cynthia Hewett. The boys went to pick them up from school one day, and for Paul, it was love at first sight when he saw Cynthia.

Paul and Cynthia married in 1961. Paul then attended technical college, graduating first in his class. He was immediately recruited for a job as a software engineer and began to travel while Cynthia stayed at home with their first two children, Amy and Alan. Twins, Jill and Susan, followed in 1967.

By 1974, Paul tired of being away from his wife and children due to work-related travel. He and Cynthia decided they would leave Houston for Colorado. Paul drove up to Colorado on his own, spending two weeks driving around the state looking for a business to buy and a place to live.

The family is forever grateful that Paul and Cynthia ended up buying Magnum Sporting Goods, a shop on F Street originally owned by the Scanga family, in beautiful Salida, CO. Paul had bravely moved his family from a huge city near extended family to a small mountain town in another state where they knew no one. It was a courageous move, with Paul having no real idea what was in store for his family.

They rented a cute house with an apple orchard out on County Road 140 for the first year, then moved into town in 1975, buying a house across the street from the iconic greenhouse and Salida High School.

Luckily, the Magnum thrived, and so did the family. Paul expanded the sporting goods store with a location out on Highway 50, and Cynthia became the first female police officer in Salida. Salida was truly home. Two old neighborhood families from Houston, the DeFarges and the Crandalls, even moved up to Salida after visiting!

The entire Duncan family took great advantage of all Salida had to offer, skiing, biking, swimming, rafting, horseback-riding, hiking, camping, and traveling throughout southwestern Colorado together on most weekends.

Then, with the economic downturn in 1980, Paul made the difficult decision to sell The Magnum. He returned to the computer industry, working in Boulder during the week and traveling back to Salida on the weekends. Paul and Cynthia made this sacrifice for their kids for an entire year, allowing their son to graduate from Salida High School, before finally saying goodbye to the town they loved and moving to Fort Collins together in 1981, with the twins in tow.

It was a heart-wrenching move for the family, but Paul’s second go at a career as a software engineer was immediately successful. He even wrote communications software for NASA. Paul and Cynthia moved to Boulder after the twins graduated in 1985. From 1981 to his retirement in 2000, Paul worked for Autotrol, NBI, McData, and StorageTek, all successful, well-known Colorado-based technology companies.

Fort Collins never truly felt like home to Paul and Cynthia, but Boulder did. Nonetheless, upon retirement, they moved back to Salida in 2000. The family had always considered Salida to be their real home town, and the whole gang was thrilled!

Paul and Cynthia hiked and biked, ran an antique booth in town, volunteered with the Lions Club and PEO, as well as at Longfellow Elementary, maintained a lovely home on the mesa with a yard that was the envy of many, and enjoyed having the space to allow their children and grandchildren to come home to Salida for countless visits over the years.

Unfortunately, Cynthia began showing signs of dementia around 2009. She required more and more professional care, and Paul and Cynthia once again uprooted themselves from the little town they adored, going back to Fort Collins in 2013. Their daughter Amy lived there, and Alan was in nearby Greeley. Cynthia received the care she needed, and she and Paul lived there until she passed in 2018. Paul remained in Fort Collins until his passing at a care facility in Loveland on June 28, 2026.

Paul Duncan was preceded in death by his wife, Cynthia Duncan, and his parents, Glenn and Icelyn Duncan of Scottsburg, IN. He is survived by his four children, Amy, Alan, Jill, and Susan, and three grandchildren, Brooke, Thomas, and Brianna.

The family is planning a small service in September.