Sometimes called “Ted” or “Ed,” Duke — as he was always known to us —  spent his life in Cleveland except for his student days at Exeter and Princeton and two years in Texas as an Army draftee, where he used his spare time to earn a private pilot’s license. At Princeton he lived in the fabled Blair Tower suite with eight roommates, majored in sociology, joined Tiger Inn, and played in the band. 

In 1953 Duke joined Mueller Electric Co., a family-owned manufacturer of insulators, clips, and similar electrical products sold worldwide and founded by his grandfather in 1908. After a series of management positions, Duke was president from 1980 until his retirement in 1986 following the company’s sale. 

Duke married Barbara Field in 1957; they had two boys and a girl, owned a condo in Aspen, and threw their lives into developing Playhouse Square, the renovation of four adjacent theaters in downtown Cleveland that was described as the largest renovation project in American theater history. 

Barbara died in 1994, and Duke married Anne Smith Wombwell in 1998. She was strongly supportive of the countless charitable, child-welfare and pro bono organizations in which Duke had leadership roles over the decades prior to his passing Aug. 19, 2019.

Class Year: 
Undergraduate Class of 1951