One L&C Champion - Mark Duntley

With almost 32 years at Lewis & Clark, Mark Duntley has served as a faculty member, an administrator, a neighbor, and as a spiritual connection to the campus community. A common sentiment among Mark’s colleagues is that no matter your question or issue, Mark will be there to help. To recognize his service, one of his fellow colleagues has endowed an award that will go to a student in the form of a scholarship. The student must “capture Mark’s spirit of giving, wisdom, caring, enthusiasm for life and deep understanding of the human condition and spirituality.” It’s impossible to capture all that Mark does for the L&C community, but we’d like to recognize Mark’s impact further by naming him our L&C Champion for the last week of April!

Mark continues to be amazed at how many different people he works with and how many roles he gets to play. His role as Dean of Spiritual Life focuses on serving spiritual and religious needs on campus, but there is so much more that he is able to do. Since the pandemic began he’s taught 19 undergraduate students a course on Biomedical Ethics, helped the Student Life division put a new Strategic Direction into action, supported spiritual life staff in offering all on-line programming, and coordinated the celebration of life gatherings for a law school professor and an undergraduate student. Mark serves as one of the SAOCs (Senior Administrator On Call) for Student Life, and works with faculty and others in the IACUC (Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee) and IRB (Institutional Review Board). His motivation to serve here at Lewis & Clark for so many years lies in a “love of learning and in a faith-filled desire to be helpful and caring towards others.”

Mark’s commitment to the people of Lewis & Clark cannot be overstated, and it’s important to read his words below to get a sense of who he is and what he means to our community:

“What I love most about Lewis & Clark is that it is a place that is dedicated to holistic learning and that there are so many amazing students, staff, and faculty here. The beautiful campus and the magnificent Agnes Flanagan Chapel are a wonderful bonus too… Once I retire I’m looking forward to doing more volunteering in the community and doing some projects around the house that have been on the back burner for years. The pandemic prevented my wife and me from leading the Fall 2020 London humanities overseas study program, so she and I also hope to travel on our own and spend some time in London and Scotland in the coming years.

One last thing. We have lived across the street from the campus since 1998, and we’ve hosted countless dinners, lunches and gatherings with students at our house over those years. I’ve held class sessions at our house and hosted annual Thanksgiving meals and RA training lunches for students, and since 2012 I’ve also hosted my spiritual life staff at a monthly staff meeting and lunch at our house until the pandemic interrupted that tradition. I have so enjoyed offering this hospitality to students and colleagues over the years, and have lots of stories to tell about those wonderful times with people gathered in the Duntley/Smith home.”

Thank you, Mark, for opening up your home to our community, and for all of your efforts to make Lewis & Clark feel like home for everyone.