By John McDowell, Duane’s son
Duane McDowell was a 1946 Journalism graduate of South Dakota State College (well, not really. He was a math class short. They mailed him a diploma in the 1950s after he started work for his state’s U.S. Senator!). At SDS he was editor of Collegian, the student newspaper. He also served as a drill instructor at Camp Walters, TX during WWII prior to being sent by the US Army to Yale University to learn Chinese (for an invasion of China that never came).
After finishing at SDS, he got a job as reporter and columnist for the Rapid City Journal (in South Dakota). He then moved to Washington, DC to serve for ten years as press secretary (one of the first, if not the first, ever for Senators) for South Dakota’s Republican Senator Karl E. Mundt.
Upon leaving Washington, D.C Duane landed a job as assistant publisher/business manager for the Winner (South Dakota) Advocate and then as executive director for the South Dakota Republican Party (while George McGovern filled the same role at the Democratic Party).
Moving to California in 1963, Duane traveled in six western states for the National Association of Manufacturers. He also was public relations consultant to several businesses in San Francisco, following his duties as the founding executive director for the newly combined County Fair and Convention Bureau for San Mateo County.
For 25 years Duane served as the public relations consultant for the U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce (Pacific) Inc. This non-profit promoted trade and business between companies headquartered in 13 western states in the US and those in all 20 countries of the Arab World. He joined the Chamber when it was organized in 1974 and remained in that capacity until his retirement in 1999. During those years his travels included official visits to Egypt, Bahrain, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia.
Duane joined PRRT sometime in the mid-late 1970s. He was elected chair as well as serving on the Board and several committees, including his final roles as historian and holiday Santa Claus.
Mr. McDowell passed away 15 January 2013. Memorial services were private. The family requests that memorial contributions in Duane’s honor be made to the PR Round Table’s Scholarship Fund.
Duane will be greatly missed at PRRT.