Jerry Jay Duke

Jerry Jay Duke, 67, of Golden Colorado, succumbed to a hard fought battle with cancer on March 26th 2023. He was preceded in death by his much loved mother Jackie Duke, his ‘best friend’, with whom he shared a hearty laugh and exuberant personality. He is survived by his sisters Jill Canzona and Julie Benetti, nephew Mark Canzona, niece Jeannie Marie Benettti and numerous cousins who reside in Alaska, Massachusetts, Montana, Texas, Washington and Baja Mexico.

Jerry was born in Shelby, Montana and raised in a close and loving family in Wheat Ridge, Colorado. He was a graduate of Wheat Ridge High School, where he formed strong and lasting friendships. An avid outdoorsman, Jerry spent several summers working in the Bristol Bay Sockeye Salmon Fishery with his Alaska relatives. One memorable summer Jerry spent 40 days alone, camping on a small island in Nanak Lake, with the local bear as his only companion. This experience remained a true highlight of his adventurous life. Back in Denver, Jerry was an entrepreneur, establishing his longtime business ‘Estate Clean Up’, choosing a rearing bear as his logo in reference to close encounters with his grizzly bear friend.

An out-going man, Jerry teamed up with a group of Aspen river rafters in the early 80s, soon becoming an expert oarsman and favored camp chef. Jerry rowed with numerous private river expeditions on most of the premiere rivers of the west, including the Colorado, Delores, Roaring Fork, Yampa and Gates of Lodore. With many idyllic summers spent on the Main, Lower and Middle forks of the Salmon River in Idaho as well as on several epic trips down the Grand Canyon, Jerry’s expansive personality made him a favorite with all of his ‘river tribe’; he was the boatman you ‘don’t leave home without’, his skills and expertise often leading him to perform river rescues for fellow rafters in distress.

Beginning in the late 1980s, Jerry began working in Denver’s television and film industry as a set painter, carpenter and leadman set dresser. Skilled in many of the disciplines of the art department, Jerry worked on numerous Perry Mason tv movies, Father Dowling Mysteries, and Diagnosis Murder with Dick Van Dyke. Through the 1990s and early 2000s, Jerry worked on films such as Flashback, Asteroid, The Laramie Project, Silver City, and many others. Projects in the 21st century included Imagine That with Eddie Murphy, and many many commercial productions in the region, on which he was the go-to set painter and construction carpenter.

With his signature oversized sombrero or cowboy hat, bolo tie or neckerchief, and sporting his trademark ‘side whiskers’, Jerry was a distinctive man who stood out in any crowd. He loved working on his house and in his garden, crafting an environment as unique as its creator. As highly regarded in the film community as by his river friends, high school buddies and family, Jerry had a unique, one of a kind personality. We shall not see his like again. He will be much missed by all who loved him.

A memorial and celebration of Jerry’s life will be announced in the spring.