Duane Benedict Stahl, 79, Valley City, North Dakota passed away Wednesday, July 17, 2024, at SMP Health – St. Raphael in Valley City.

A funeral mass will be celebrated at 10:30 AM, Wednesday, July 24 at St. Catherine Catholic Church, Valley City.  The visitation will be held one hour before the service at the church.  Burial will be in St. Mary’s Cemetery, near Courtenay, North Dakota.

Duane was born August 26,1944, in Carrington, North Dakota to Ben and Gertrude (Falk) Stahl and grew up on the family farm near Sykeston, North Dakota.

His education included graduating from Sykeston High School and from Valley City State College (now VCSU).  Duane met his wife Judy Lade in college and they were married in 1967. He then taught English, language skills, speech and play production for two years in Bowman, North Dakota.

In 1969, he joined the US Navy and served as a Communications Yeoman as a teletype operator at North Island Naval Base in Coronado, California and in Saigon, Vietnam, where he spent one year and seven months until his honorable discharge in June of 1972.

Duane was then employed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs teaching high school English, Journalism, and Speech in Pine Ridge, South Dakota for about seven years, then taught English, Reading Skills and a World of Work class for 18 years at the Pine Ridge Job Corps Center near Chadron, Nebraska, where he was president of the local of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE).  He also served in the Army National Guard in Chadron.

In 1992, Duane and his wife bought Family Court in Chadron which included about 30 rentals consisting of a motel converted to apartments and several mobile homes. In 2003 they sold the rentals, and he and Judy moved to Valley City, North Dakota, to be closer to her parents who were then in the Sheyenne Care Center.

In Valley City, Duane and Judy did numerous remodeling projects on their home through the years, having learned much from work done on rentals

From 2003-2018, Duane was employed as a school bus driver for Dietrich’s Bus Services in Valley City which included a daily bus route and numerous out-of-town activity trips.

Duane enjoyed working with Boy Scouts of America for more than 20 years as a Club Scout Webelos leader and as Scoutmaster in Chadron and Assistant Scoutmaster in Valley City. He also was in the honorary Order of the Arrow and completed Wood Badge Advanced Training Leader.  Duane was a John Birch Society chapter leader since the 1970s, served on the Executive Committee of District 24 GOP in Valley City and was an active member in St. Catherine Catholic Church.

He enjoyed a trip to Thailand while in Vietnam and later traveled to Hawaii, Yucatan, most of the western states, northern Canada, and visited children and grandchildren who lived at a distance.

Duane was preceded in death by his parents, in-laws James and Anne Lade and daughter-in-law Amanda (Peden) Stahl.

Duane is survived by his wife Judy, Valley City; sister Patricia (Frank) Paumen, Fargo, North Dakota; daughter Rosanne Stahl, Kremmling, Colorado; son Roger (Kate) Stahl, Winterville, Georgia and their children Bennett and Camille; son Eldon (Yulia) Stahl, Evanston, Wyoming, and their children Antonina, Sergei, and Aleftina; and brother-in-law Burt Lade.

Funeral arrangements have been entrusted to the care of Oliver-Nathan Funeral Chapel, Valley City.  An online guestbook is available at www.olivernathanchapel.com