Stricken by a heart attack, the Rev. Charles Robert Duncan, M.A., B.D., D.D., minister of Grimsby Baptist Church since 1949, died in the ambulance while being removed to West Lincoln Memorial Hospital on Thursday night last.
One of Ontario's most widely known Baptist ministers, he had been educational secretary at McMaster University for a 12-year period from 1926 to 1938. Born in Hull, England, on August 4, 1882, a son of the late James and Helen Duncan, he had been in Canada for 66 years. He received his elementary and high school education at Montreal. In 1908, he graduated in arts at McMaster University.
He was ordained at Sherbrooke, Quebec in 1908 and served as a minister there until 1909, when he returned to McMaster for a time. In 1910-1913, he was minister at First Baptist Church, Port Huron, Michigan.
From 1922-26, he was minister of Park Church, in Brantford. Then from 1926 to 1938, he was educational secretary at McMaster. During 1938, he returned to the Brantford church for his second ministry. In 1940, he was appointed to Ontario Street Church, at Stratford, and in 1949, he moved to Grimsby.
On May 15, 1951, he was given the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity by McMaster University. In the citation given at that time by Dr. Gilmour, then chancellor of the university, it was stated that he had laboured for over 40 years as an ordained minister in the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec, with 3 other years in a pastorate in Port Huron, Michigan.
"Holding both the M.A. and B.D. degrees from McMaster," Dr. Gilmour said, "he has been one of our most loyal and discerning graduates. To him, we owe a special debt of gratitude for the 12 years during which he was educational secretary here. In 1933-34, he was vice-president of the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec, and he is a former editor of the Canadian Baptist."
He had served on the ministerial superannuation board since 1921 and he been elected chairman several times.
Mr. Duncan is survived by his wife, the former Jane Arthurs, a son, Arthur, of Niagara Falls, Ontario, and a daughter, Mrs. Walter Battersby, of Niagara Falls, N.Y.. also one brother, John of Toronto and 3 sisters, Mrs. D. Miller and Mrs. W. Brown, of Montreal, and Mrs. J.A. Beebe, of California. Six grandchildren also survive.
Funeral service was conducted from the Baptist Church Monday afternoon, Dr. G.P. Gilmour, Chancellor of McMaster University, Hamilton and Rev. Roy Cooke, of Beamsville, officiating. The church was filled with those who came to pay their last respects to the deceased.
A profusion of floral tributes added further silent messages of condolence from friends and followers from nearby and distant points.
As the remains left the church, a Guard of Honour comprised of members of the West Lincoln Ministerial Association formed at the entrance to the church.
The casket bearers, all deacons of the church, were Messrs. R.D. Colpitts, A. Judd, J.A.D. Atwell, J.E. Morris, W.J. Bengough and Harold Steedman.
Burial was made in Lundy's Lane Cemetery, Niagara Falls, Ontario.
