Michael J. Duffy ’55

Father Michael J. Duffy, a Maryknoll missionary priest for 35 years, died of heart failure at Maryknoll Center, Ossining, N .Y., on Nov. 16, 1999.

He was proud of his PhD in theology from Fordham. But he was even prouder of his achievement with the Tanzanian Agricultural Project. Arriving at his mission in the wilds of Tanzania in 1964, he quickly mastered Swahili and concluded that malnutrition was so extensive that he'd best focus on saving his flocks' health and then worry about their souls.

With books on agriculture from libraries and friends in the US, he spent a year in self­education. In the second year, he took a portion of the mission acreage and put his newfound theories to work. With the success of his mission farm in hand, and donations of equipment and money, he spent the third year traveling to the many towns throughout his mission (hundreds of miles), where he convinced the "main-man" in each town to take his free service for one year with the understanding that once the effectiveness of his technique was proven, they would not only pay in future years, but also sell the service to others in the village.

By the fifth year, he had a two-million dollar line of credit and two German agronomists working for him.

He continued to move back and forth between Maryknoll headquarters and Africa throughout his career, spending the last three years at headquarters, helping to chart the future of the Maryknoll Order.