Duncan Yaggy

Duncan Yaggy, 87, died at home on January 19, 2026. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on October 19, 1938, the eldest of five children born to his mother, Elizabeth Ross Duncan Yaggy, and his father, Edward Esher Yaggy, Jr.

After graduating from Yale University in 1960 with a BA in American History, Duncan spent a year in the family’s commercial banking business in New York before heeding President Kennedy’s call for national service. He joined the Peace Corps, the third group to leave the country, serving in the Philippines from 1961 to 1963. Moved from volunteer to staff leader before takeoff, Duncan supported volunteers on isolated rural islands, opened territory, secured volunteer housing, and worked with local people to organize community projects. He met his first wife, volunteer Sandra Phillips Yaggy, while serving.

The Peace Corps enlarged his respect for people and cultures, his zeal for organizing, his ability to listen, his disarming ability to ask probing questions, his entrepreneurial spirit, his endless curiosity, and his restless energy.

After the Peace Corps, Duncan trained as a master teacher at Howard University. He moved his young family to Boston, completing a PhD in American History at Brandeis University while serving as Assistant Secretary of Human Services and Assistant Commissioner of the state Health Department for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. When asked how he could serve in these positions without training in medicine, law or business, Duncan said he believed his study of history was the best possible training, because “if you want to know where things are headed, find out first where they started and how they got there.”

In 1980, Duncan was appointed Chief Planning Officer for Duke University Hospital and, when Duke acquired Durham Regional Hospital and Raleigh Community Hospital, was named Associate Vice President of Duke University Health System. Duncan worked across and between the Medical Center’s clinical and academic departments and Duke Hospital’s service lines (pediatrics, radiology, surgery, etc.) to shape the plans for new services, facilities and technology. North Carolina has a Certificate of Need (CON) law to determine the state’s need for health facilities, beds, operating rooms, and expensive medical equipment. Competition between health facilities for CON approval is intense; the applications involve extensive analysis and are written to withstand appeal. Duncan authored more than 300 full-scale CON applications for Duke, and he rarely lost.

A few of the projects Duncan led to fruition include cardiac catheterization, advanced imaging, open heart surgery, the Duke Cancer Center, the expansion of Duke Eye Center, Life Flight, the first helicopter emergency medical service, and the Duke Medical Pavilion. He developed strong relationships with physicians and hospitals throughout the region, creating the Duke Health Network to support their work.

Duncan was passionately committed to improving access to health care for low-income people. He built enduring relationships with the state’s Medicaid and Rural Health agencies. He was a leader of the initiative that grew into Duke’s Division of Community Health. He was instrumental in securing funding and support for community-based primary care services located in community centers, public schools, and in public and subsidized housing. He led the effort to establish Northern Piedmont Community Care, which delivered medical support to more than 50,000 Medicaid patients under the state’s Community Care of North Carolina initiative. He helped plan and secure funding for a community program that delivers care management to over 20,000 uninsured Durham residents. In 2006, he represented Duke in establishing Project Access of Durham County, through which Duke and community physicians deliver free specialty care to uninsured Durham residents. Duncan served as an early board member of Lincoln Community Health Center, and served as a member of the North Carolina Hospital Association Board.

Duncan served as Professor of the Practice at Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy where he mentored graduate students. In 1995, he took a leading role in creating a joint program between Duke and East Carolina University to train nurses in 32 rural NC counties online as nurse practitioners, nurse midwives, and physician assistants. He was a founder and senior mentor of Duke’s multi-disciplinary Master’s in Clinical Leadership for practicing clinicians.

Friends, family, and colleagues knew Duncan as a gentle, self-effacing man, eager to change the subject to anything other than himself. He had a wicked sense of humor that was easy to overlook, at first. His generosity extended far beyond his extended family to the community. He was eager to offer support, often before it was requested, and gave frequently and anonymously to people who will never know him.

Upon his retirement in 2011, the Governor conferred on Duncan membership in The Order of the Long Leaf Pine, the state’s highest civilian honor. On that day, the North Carolina flag flew over the State House in his honor.

He leaves his loving family: his wife, Susan Derman Yaggy, his children, Amanda Elizabeth Yaggy and Ross Edward Yaggy (Jennifer), two stepchildren, Dale Richards (Tyler) and Jake Epstein (Brittany Bryan), and four grandchildren as well as his sister, Melanie Snedcof (Harold), his brother, Michael Yaggy (Eleanora), his sister, Carol Yaggy (Mary Twomey), and his nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents, his brother, Laurence Ross Yaggy, and his nephew, David Laurence Yaggy.

A memorial service will be held on Thursday, February 12th from 3-5 PM at University Club in Durham. In lieu of flowers, contributions in his honor can be made to You Can Vote, a non-partisan voter registration organization that he helped found, and where he volunteered and served on the Board (https://www.youcanvote.org/donate) or The Nature Conservancy (https://www.nature.org/en-us/).