Doris Duff's 2019 retirement dinner, HBS Association of Boston.
(Courtesy photo via the Laconia Daily Sun)

In celebration of her 100th birthday, Doris Duff’s (HRPBA 1952) hometown newspaper, the Laconia Daily Sun, recently looked back on the long life and remarkable career of the New Hampshire resident.

“The View From 100” recounts how Duff was 6 years old at the beginning of the Great Depression and just finishing high school when the United States entered World War II. Most of the boys in her class were drafted; not many came home. Doris got a job at an insurance company after high school, knowing she would lose it when the war ended. “She remembered the sound of neighbors beating pots and pans in the street to celebrate when the war ended,” according to article.

After undergraduate studies at Fisher College, Duff completed the Harvard–Radcliffe Program in Business Administration at HBS. That launched Duff’s long career in the personnel department of major Boston banks. She also served on the Board of Governors of the HBS Association of Boston—the first woman to do so, according to the newspaper. One of their meetings was held at a private men’s club in Beacon Hill, which required Duff and the other women attending to enter through the back door, “so as to not offend the club’s membership. Today, Doris recounts proudly, the Board of Governors is almost evenly split between men and women.”

The article also chronicles Duff’s lifelong love of travel, which allowed her to see every European country but Spain, all 50 states, Asia, North Africa, Australia, and the Pacific Rim. She has walked the Great Wall of China five times and, at age 99, rode on the back of a motorcycle during Motorcycle Week. Happy birthday, Doris!

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