Our Story

In the face of tragic loss, we believe that stability for a child is at the core of resilience and rebuilding, and that education is the single greatest tool one can provide for any child. 

For a child experiencing bereavement of a parent, psychiatric research suggests that a stable, consistent environment, as well as an adequate community support system, heavily influences the long term impact on the child. Our own experiences reinforce this idea. 

As children, our father faced an aggressive battle with cancer beginning when we were just seven, three and one years old. Childhood memories are peppered with dad being sick – trips to Philadelphia to visit him in the hospital, weeks at Grandmom’s while mom and dad were away seeking cancer treatments, and dad often sick on holidays and birthdays when we knew he wanted to be with us celebrating. But those memories are also peppered with dad being superman – building us a basketball court at our house, taking us “camping”, making us homemade ice cream in his brand new fancy ice cream maker. Four years after his diagnosis, our dad passed away, leaving our mom with four young kids to raise. Yet our memories from the days that followed are not filled with turmoil or instability that one might anticipate after such a tragic upheaval in a child’s life. On the contrary, our days were filled by our time at St. Agnes school, and our family was enveloped in love and support and prayer from the St. Agnes community. We will never forget the countless St. Agnes families who arrived at our house in the days and months that followed dad’s death, with warm meals for our family, or to offer our mom help in any way. Our fondest memories are in the St. Agnes gym and library, or in a St. Agnes friend’s backyard, not kids who lost their dad – just kids learning and growing in a stable, loving community.

When we unexpectedly lost our brother Michael in 2018 at the young age of 31, it felt like a nightmare. Our family already experienced so much, and Michael left behind his wife Andrea and an 11-month old daughter Emma who loved him beyond measure. With the surprise of Michael’s death, there was great uncertainty for Andrea and Emma, yet once again, we were comforted by the tremendous support of our community. Knowing the value Michael put on education, his co-workers and friends jumped to action, starting a gofundme with the goal to ensure that Emma’s education would always be taken care of. For weeks and months, we watched in awe as hundreds of families selflessly contributed to the gofundme. Once again, we felt the great force of our St. Agnes friends, as well as Michael’s Salesianum and Villanova classmates, and his professional circles. And while the monetary impact of that effort spoke for itself, it was the emotional outpouring of support that we will never forget. We knew that we were not alone in our loss of Michael, and that there would always be a wide community to help provide stability for Emma, as Michael would have done for anyone else. 

Our hope for this foundation is to honor our dad and our brother by providing children who have lost a parent the same support our community gave to us in 1997 and again in 2018. We have experienced first hand the transformational power of education and stability in the face of grief, and we will work to pass that on to each and every recipient of the Michael Duke Foundation for what we hope is years to come.

With gratitude,
Claire, Martha & Elizabeth