by Eva Dameron
Daily Lobo
Brent Duncan's family could always count on him to get things done.
"We're going to miss him being our handy man," said his mother, Priscilla Duncan. "He always told his sister, 'Don't ever take your car to the shop. I'll fix it for you.' He always had his toolbox in his car, ready for anything to happen."
Brent Duncan, who was a UNM student, died Oct. 29 in Albuquerque. He was 26.
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His funeral was held Nov. 1 in Gallup, N.M.
Priscilla Duncan said the family doesn't know how he died, but it was sudden.
After a Friday night football game between the Lobos and Colorado State, she said her son walked back from the stadium to visit his brother and sister. He and his brother sat down to play a hand-held video game.
"He was playing a football video game. Apparently he stood up and then he collapsed," she said. "They did CPR, but he didn't recover."
Priscilla Duncan said he never complained of health problems and was physically fit from walking so much.
"That's why it's so hard to accept what happened," she said.
Brent Duncan had two sons and two daughters.
He was honorably discharged from the U.S. Air Force in 2001, and was active in the National Guard at the time of his death. He had just returned from the war in Iraq.
Jamie Yazzie, his best friend and UNM student, said he met Duncan while working with him at Kirtland Air Force Base.
"We used to work on the same aircraft together," Yazzie said. "We had a lot of work to do - it was a little more than we could handle, but we could handle it because he was so positive."
He said Duncan wanted to finish his degree in engineering and minor in math.
Yazzie's girlfriend, April Hale, said Duncan would visit them on weekends.
"He was really excited about moving here because he was going into the engineering program," she said. "His older brother and sister were living here. This was another opportunity for him to be close to his family and his children and to get a good education."
Hale never saw him get angry, she said.
"He was always laughing, very lighthearted, making jokes," she said. "He wasn't the kind to sit around and be lazy. He was always wanting to go out and work. He was very active with his family."
Hale said she got a shocking phone call Saturday morning from a friend saying Duncan had died.
"We couldn't believe such a young man who had so much potential, and so much ambition, was gone from our lives, from his children's lives, and his family and all the people that cared about him," she said. "We felt that it was too soon for a person with that much potential to be gone."
Duncan's sister, Chanda Duncan, said she is going to miss his sense of humor.
"He was my best friend," she said. "He knew stuff I didn't know about life. He joked around all the time."
Priscilla Duncan said they had a big turnout for his service.
"I couldn't believe how many people he'd touched," she said. "He was passionate and he just got along with anybody. We will truly miss him."
