In Remembrance: Duane “Mac” MacFarland ’49 Died on October 17 2022

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Born on March 15, 1928, to Laura and Frederick MacFarland of New Haven, Connecticut, Duane “Mac” MacFarland died at Greenwich, Connecticut, of a brief illness on October 17, 2022. Mac grew up in New Haven and graduated from Yale University in 1949 with a BA degree in sociology. The Korean War broke out the following June. He enlisted in the US Air Force, serving four and a half years as a jet-fighter pilot.  He flew F-80s and F-94 all-weather interceptors with the 339th Fighter Interceptor Squadron in Japan and the 437th Fighter Squadron at Otis Air Force Base on Cape Cod.

Mac spent his business career in the international oil industry, working for Conoco, Natomas Company, and American Ultramar, Ltd. His employment included retail marketing in Oklahoma; managing director of a refining/marketing organization in the Caribbean and Eastern Canada; president of a Natomas subsidiary. He traveled for many years throughout Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Japan negotiating crude oil contracts with several OPEC national oil companies.

Mac retired in 1985 and then spent hundreds of hours in volunteer activities: six years on the board of Greenwich Adult Day Care (fundraising); playing the piano weekly for 23 years at the Nathaniel Witherell nursing home; several years at Julian Curtiss elementary school working with first graders overcoming difficulties with reading and arithmetic; a board member and weekly driver for Call-A-Ride. A member of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Riverside for seven decades, Mac served two three-year terms on the vestry. Additionally, he was a member of the Rocky Point Club and the Yale Golf Course. His goal of breaking 90 at Yale forever eluded him, a source of no little exasperation. He is survived by his son Peter MacFarland of Houston, Texas; a daughter, Alice MacFarland of Fairfield, Connecticut; and four grandchildren. His beloved wife Jean predeceased him in May 2015. They were married for over 62 years. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in his name to Greenwich Adult Day Care, 125 River Road, Cos Cob, CT 06807; or St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 200 Riverside Avenue, Riverside, CT 06878.

—Submitted by the family.