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Lieutenant General William H. Duncan, M.D.

Lieutenant General William H. Duncan retired after more than 35 years of distinguished military service in
1987. Upon graduation from the United States Military Academy in 1952, he was commissioned as a Second
Lieutenant of Infantry, serving in the 508th Airborne Regimental Combat Team and in Korea during the
Korea Conflict, in the 17th Infantry Regiment of the 7th Division.

He was awarded the Expert Infantryman’s Badge, the Commendation Medal and numerous service medals.  
Upon resigning from the Regular Army in 1955 he joined the Pennsylvania National Guard, with the 111th
Infantry Regimental Combat Team, Philadelphia Pennsylvania.  He was promoted to rank of Major of Infantry
as the Operations and Training Officer.

In February 1963, he accepted a commission as a Major, Medical Corps in the Delaware Army National
Guard and became Commanding Officer of the 116th Surgical Hospital (Mobile Army).  General Duncan
transferred to the Signal Corps Branch in 1970.  He reached the grade of Major General, qualified in the
Signal Corps and served as the Commander of the 261st Signal Command (Theater Army).  

Mobilization missions in which he participated were to the Third United States Army, the Army Component of
Central Command, the Joint Rapid Deployment Force to Southwest Asia and to WESTCOM, the Army
Component to the Pacific Command.  

General Duncan was awarded the U.S. Army’s Distinguished Service Medal, their highest peacetime award;
the Delaware Conspicuous Service Cross (Fifth Award) and promoted to the State rank of Lieutenant
General.  He holds the Delaware Distinguished Service Medal and the Delaware Medal for Military Merit
(Eight Awards).

He has held appointments by the Secretary of the Army to the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General of
the Army on Reserve Affairs and the Army Reserve Forces Policy Committee and subsequently held an
appointment by the Secretary of Defense to the Reserve Forces Policy Board.  He served three times as the
President of the gubernatorial committee to recommend the individual to serve as Adjutant General of
Delaware.  He has served five times as a member of the General Officer Selection Board for the National
Guard.

General Duncan is a Director, Army Historical Foundation, 1998- present. He is also Chairman of the
National Guard Heritage Painting Committee, Washington DC, 2001 –present. He is the Chairman of the
Delaware Military Heritage and Education Foundation, 1999 –present.  He is the author of several articles on
military history.

General Duncan attended Delaware public schools, graduating from P.S. duPont High School, Wilmington
Delaware in 1947.  He attended the University of Delaware before appointment to West Point in 1948.  He
graduated with a Bachelor of Science from the U.S. Military Academy in 1952 and graduated with a Doctor of
Medicine from Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia Pennsylvania in 1959.  He participated in
post-doctoral training in psychiatry and obstetrics in addition to his rotating internship at the Delaware
Hospital, 1959-1960.

His civilian career was equally distinguished; beginning with a Family Practice established in Wilmington
Delaware in July 1960.  He was named as part-time Director of Medical Education for the Delaware Hospital
and subsequently Director of Emergency Services. In 1967 he was appointed Director of Ambulatory
Services for the Wilmington Medical Center.  He was named Vice President of Medical Affairs at Saint Francis
Hospital in Wilmington in 1975. He “retired” from St. Francis in 1993. General Duncan was appointed as the
Senior Medical Examiner for the Federal Aviation Administration from 1969-1993.  General Duncan currently
practices general medicine and allergy with Calvert Ear, Nose and Throat Associates in Annapolis, Maryland.

He has held numerous appointments as a medical consultant, lecturer, instructor, trainer, peer reviewer, and
arbitrator in positions of administrative responsibility spanning five decades. His interests are not limited to
military and medical topics.  To name just a few of his innumerable associations, he has been an active
participant in Crittendon Center for unwed mothers; Temple University Medical School Alumni Association,
Board member for the YMCA of Delaware, the Executive Board for the Del-Mar-Va Council, Boy Scouts of
America, and Director of the Historical Society of Delaware.

General Duncan married the former Doris May Goodley of Brandywine Hundred.  They had three children,
Charles, Laurie, and William.  She died in 2000.  General Duncan married Beth Rhodes, M.D. of
Huntingtown, Maryland in 2005. He has a stepdaughter Kristina by this second marriage.

As an interesting historical footnote, General Duncan is the son of Delaware career National Guardsman,
Colonel S.B. I. Duncan, for whom the Duncan Readiness Center is named.

Colonel Duncan was a citizen-soldier as long as one could be, from his early teens until his death.  At the
age of fourteen (about 1908) and perhaps before, he was voluntarily pasting and setting targets for the
Delaware Militia at the State Rifle Range below New Castle, as well as running errands and doing other
chores.  At seventeen and a half years old in the presence of his father and mother, he enlisted as a Private
of Infantry in the First Delaware Infantry, and subsequently rose through every enlisted and officer rank to
Colonel, an Anti-Aircraft Artillery Group Commander.  His death was premature from and injury/illness
contracted during service in the European Theater in World War II, and just prior to when he was scheduled
to receive the rank of Brigadier General as an Air Defense Artillery Brigade Commander in the Delaware
National Guard.

He had a distinguished combat record of eight campaigns of Federal Service, from the Mexican Border in
1916 to service in the First World War and in both the Pacific and European Theaters in World War II.  He
also served in numerable calls to State Service to prevent lynching, quell riots, escort World War I Bonus
Marchers through the State of Delaware and to provide for the health and protection of the State of Delaware
in times of disaster.

His leadership during his enlisted years in particular was legendary in the Delaware National Guard. To
recognize his service to his state and nation, his wife, the late Elmira Newell Duncan established the Colonel
S.B.I. Duncan Foundation to provide an annual award to recognize the enlisted soldiers and airmen who
were felt to emulate Colonel Duncan’s style of leadership.


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