Duncan Merritt's Obituary
A Tribute to Duncan John Merritt; a lover of life. His journey began on February 7th, 1954 in Eugene Oregon, the second of five children; he was born to Jack and Arlette Merritt. The family moved from Oregon when Duncan was young and lived in both Southern and Northern California. As a child, Duncan was vibrant, articulate and humorous. He was intellectually gifted, adventurous and filled with the spirit of living. All in all, he was a one of a kind. Duncan graduated from Hayward High and was accepted at the University of California Berkeley. While studying at U.C. Berkeley he began a very successful career at Bank of America’s Data Processing Center. Duncan started out in the reconciling department, then moved to Printer Operations where he became Senior Laser Printer Operator. From there he progressed up to Computer Operations where he relished in his role as Advisory Systems Engineer, and with hard work earned the respect and adoration of his colleagues and was quickly promoted to Senior Systems Computer Analyst. After 32 years of service he retired. While at the Bank of America he met the love of his life Agnes Marfil of San Francisco, California. Their 40 years of togetherness began with 8 years of friendship, followed by 12 years of courtship, then the two lovebirds married on August 21, 1999. Duncan was an exceptional husband and an amazing and admiral step father to KeYonna, Glynnis, Jahmeika and Quintara Roy. Among Duncan’s many interest and hobbies were camping and hiking (begun at a young age with family outings and Boy Scout trips), boating, four wheeling/Jeeping, astrophotography (a passion from his teenage years when he built his own telescope), wood refinishing and boat modeling. A tinkerer and builder from a young age Duncan could fix absolutely anything and was the world’s best handyman. He loved tackling minor and major home improvement projects, remodeling the entire kitchen and bathroom (including refinishing and installing cabinets), laying the floor tile and installing granite counter tops and installing all of the appliances for their homes. He also, after retirement, built an incredible Pergola in the backyard. Fascinated by boats he did all the refinishing work on his 30 foot Chris-Craft Constellation including sewing the curtains for all 10 windows. After retirement he designed an incredible workshop/man-cave in the garage and loved doing small projects, such as installing aftermarkets parts on his new Ford Mustang 5.0 (he got by claiming it was a purchase he needed to check off from his bucket list), or just popping open a ‘silver bullet’ while relaxing and shooting the breeze with his brother Webster who was his kindred spirit.
Duncan was an avid reader and stayed up to date on current events. Each morning he started the day with the New York Times, Washington Post and Vallejo Times-Herald and finished it by bantering with the trolls on the progressive blogs. In short, Duncan was a man who led life to the fullest in everything he did. But what stood out most of all was that Duncan was a gentleman, well mannered and polite, and without a doubt one of the most lovable, compassionate and humble, attentive and knowledgeable man we have ever known. “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Duncan made positive changes in the people’s lives he was a part of because he also cared about people and mankind. He believed that positive change and caring about people were intricately linked. Unfortunately, during the last years he endured much physical suffering from colon cancer. On May 8th Duncan raised his bucket fishing hat from his head one final time and performed an exquisite farewell bow, and now he is free from the pain. We will all miss his compassion, his spirit and his love. We know that he would have smiled if he could see us all gathered here for him. We promise him that we will always love him and keep him in our hearts and minds. Mourning his departure is his loving wife Agnes Viviane Merritt Cherishing his wisdom and loving memories are: his step daughters, KeYonna L. Roy, Glynnis T. (Roy) Jones (Anthony), Jahmeika L. (Roy) Robinson (Parris) and Quintara L. Roy; 8 step grandchildren, Morionte Roy, Alaiya Collins, Jamal Block Jr., Sariyah Gaines, Monterl Gaines Jr., Taylor Block, Mellieha Robinson and Parris Robinson Jr.; 1 great step grandchild, Morionte Roy Jr.; brothers, Webster Merritt (Lois) , and Daniel Merritt (Angela), sister Karen (Merritt) Sturgill (Jim); his loving and devoted step father, Stephen Bischoff; his very special Niece Tamara Merritt Gomez (Philip) and very special nephew Nicholas Merritt (Jennifer) and their son. Preceding Duncan John Merritt in death, were his parents, Arlette Merritt Bischoff and Jack Merritt and his sister Hilary Merritt Romero
What’s your fondest memory of Duncan?
What’s a lesson you learned from Duncan?
Share a story where Duncan's kindness touched your heart.
Describe a day with Duncan you’ll never forget.
How did Duncan make you smile?