Posted by Geoffrey Duin on January 3, 2007:

Col. Gerald H. Duin(Ret.) was born in Waterloo, Wisconsin in 1911, the oldest of four children. From age three he lived in New Ulm, Minnesota until he was admitted to West Point in 1932 from the Minnesota National Guard. He graduated in 1936 and was commissioned into the Field Artillery. He served at stations in Texas, Hawaii, and California. After the outbreak of the Second World War he was assigned to the War Department General Staff(WDGS) in Washington D.C. and then to the Military Intelligence Service(MIS). As an intelligence officer, he saw overseas duty in North Africa and the European Theater of Operations(ETO)where he was attached to SHAEF Headquarters. After the war Duin attended the Army Language School(later the Defense Language Institute) in Monterey, California to learn Russian. From 1947-51 he was assigned to Detachment R, the U.S. Army's Russian Language and Area School. In the fall of 1947 he was sent to Columbia University where he was enrolled in Russian studies and in October, 1948 he was sent overseas to continue Russian studies at Oberammergau, Germany. In 1952 Duin was the Deputy Commander, U.S. Military Liaison Mission(USMLM) to Soviet Forces, at Potsdam, Germany. From 1952 to 1955 Duin served as an Army Liaison Officer to the Gehlen Group(later the German Federal Republic's CIAO) at Pullach, near Munich, Germany. From 1956 to 1957 he served with the National Security Agency(NSA) in Fort Meade, Maryland and spent the last two years of his Army career as Commanding Officer, Central Records Facility(CRF), at Fort Holabird, Maryland. Duin retired in March, 1959. Having decided to pursue an academic career, Duin graduated with a Master's Degree in German language and linguistics from Middlebury College in 1960, and continued post-graduate work at the Universities of Mainz and Heidelberg between 1960-65. He joined the faculty of the University of Maryland's Overseas Program in 1961 and taught for them until 1973 when he retired and settled in Greenbrae, California. During his retirement years Duin continued to travel extensively and visited almost every continent. He died in November, 2000, a few weeks before his 89th birthday. He was survived by his wife, Dorothea M. Duin, his daughter, son, three brothers, a sister, and three grandchildren. A memorial service was held at Peace Lutheran Church, Mill Valley, California.

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