We lost some great ones in century’s first decade: O.C. Duke

O.C. Duke

Orland C. Duke, known as the “grand old man of agriculture” in the Medina County, Ohio, area, died May 11, 2002. Born in 1902 in West Virginia, Duke majored in vocational agriculture at Berea College in Kentucky. At graduation, a school administrator told him there was an opening for an ag teacher in Medina, Ohio. It was to be a job Duke held for the next 42 years. But it wasn’t just high school students that Duke influenced. During WWII, he taught the largest adult education class in the state, and was influential in promoting the use of artificial insemination in the region. One published article listed 28 local or state awards Duke earned over a lifetime of community and agricultural service. Today, a building at the Medina County Career Center — which he was instrumental in helping establish — bears his name.