Muriel Vae Duff

Muriel Vae Shutt Duff, teacher, homemaker, intellectual, and community volunteer, died in Lexington on Valentine’s Day. Vae was born on January 9, 1924, to Charles Noble Shutt, Dean of Students at Berea College, and Elva Alice Weidler, a teacher, both from Canton, Ohio, and grew up on the campus of Berea. She was the sister of Chris, Constance and the late Noel MacHenry Shutt. Vae was a student at Wooster College in Ohio when her mother died, and she returned to Berea at the age of seventeen to keep house for her father. She graduated as the valedictorian of her class at Berea College with a degree in Chemistry. During World War II she wrote letters to Mike Duff, a Berea student from Perry County who was a medic with the 27th U.S. Army Evacuation Hospital in North Africa and Europe, about the books she was reading, community activities in support of the war, and concluded one letter stating, “I like to study.” Vae went from Berea to professional study at Case Western Reserve University but returned to Kentucky after the war to teach, when women in colleges were encouraged to “go home and make room for our boys”. Her service to the community included the Girls Scouts of America, Boy Scouts/Cub Scouts of America, Sunday School and other activities at the First United Methodist Church in Lexington, the Alzheimer’s Association, Berea Alumni, Buckhorn Alumni, Best Friends™ Adult Day Care at Second Presbyterian Church, and Daybreak Community Church. She became the wife of Dr. Mike Duff, Professor and Specialist for Development Programs at the University of Kentucky. She typed and edited his dissertation, many speeches and publications, and followed him with their family in a career that took her through many moves, including South America when he was with the U.S. Agency for International Development. She nurtured him through a long illness, and was at his side when he died in 2000. Vae Duff was also a caring mother, patient, calm, persevering, and spiritual. She taught her children that “God hath made of one blood all peoples of the earth” and that our lives are opportunities to make the world a better place. She raised five children: Nayna (Gerald Campbell and Klaus Philipsen) of Baltimore, Jeffrey (Janet Walters) who died in 1995, Karma (George Schaefer) of Lexington and Clearwater, FL, Jack (Sherrie Gilbert), and Martha. She had an especially close relationship with her son Jack, who lived next door to his parents for many years. During Vae’s final years Karma and Martha moved back to Lexington and all three children visited her frequently as she struggled daily with Parkinson’s Disease. Vae was a loving grandmother of 14: Aine Hawthorn, Hannah Campbell, Nina, Vera, Jonas and Helki Philipsen; Stephen, Julie, John and Philip Duff; Adam and Erin Schaefer; and Patrick Duff and Sarah Levy. In the summers her home was sometimes referred to as “Camp Grandma.” She also leaves 15 great-grandchildren including Lucy Vae Duff, and a 16th due in May, to carry on. A memorial service will be held on Saturday, February 24, 2:00PM, at Daybreak Community Church, 210 E Reynolds Road in Lexington.