Verne Duncan Sale & Items

This weekend I was able to attend the estate sale of Verne and Donna Duncan. They have recently downsized and moved out of their long time residence. I was able to add a few Duncan items I never had the chance to get over the years. Duncan was the longstanding Superntendent of Public Education in Oregon. He was elected in 1974 and served until 1989.

There were handouts, buttons, lapel stickers, buttons and even awards and legislative items up for grabs at the sale.

There were four different bumper stickers and three different buttons.

 Many of the RWB pins were foxed somewhat. Some also had some residue over the office. My guess is that many of these pins were later used a decade later when Verne was appointed to the State Senate by Governor Kitzhaber and ran for a full term in 1998. He ran against Monroe Sweetland, another great political giant of Oregon history.

There was even a 1998 Monroe button!

This was my first Sweetland button. Monroe and Duncan were friends, and by the time Monroe was running in 1998, he was legally blind and in his late 80s. He was attempting to regain his old Senate seat, but came up only with 44% of the vote to Duncan. When Sweetland passed away in 2006 at age 96, Verne Duncan and Governor Ted Kulongoski gave eulogies to Sweetland.

One of the legislative related items I picked up was a pencil box. It was given to Duncan by Senate President Brady Adams for his service to a committee.

 It still had some pencils in it even! Other items were things like name plates from the legislature and his state offices.

 There were even larger field signs and yard signs.

Verne Duncan has been retired from electoral politics since 2003 but still keeps up on civic affaris through many groups and organizations. In 2008, the North Clackamas School District named Verne Duncan Elementary School that was built that year. Duncan had served as Superintendent of the district. 

His predecessor was Senator Bill Kennemer who is finishing his final term in the Oregon Legislature (2018), and was succeeded by Kurt Schrader who is currently serving in Congress. 

Do you have a Verne Duncan item you'd like to share? Feel free to send us an email or post in the comments.