George Duff, who assisted produce what is now the Seattle Convention Centre and Seattle-Tacoma Intercontinental Airport’s third runway and ensured the Seattle Mariners stayed in city, died at his Mercer Island property on New Year’s Day. He was 91.
Initially from Detroit, Duff was president of the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce from 1968 to 1995. Through his tenure, Duff influenced designs that helped form Seattle’s enterprise surroundings and connections. And he ongoing to serve the community after his retirement by means of his help for nonprofits and an adviser dedication with the chamber.
Present president and CEO of the chamber, Rachel Smith, mentioned Duff was one of the first regional leaders to broaden the Seattle metro area’s connections to the relaxation of the country and the environment. He would stimulate organization leaders to examine the globe “to gain inspiration and foster relationships to shift our region ahead,” Smith reported.
“George Duff was a leader who remaining his stamp on our region by means of a long time of stewardship and advocacy on behalf of our neighborhood,” Smith reported.
Duff was humble and targeted on teamwork to get things accomplished as nicely as pragmatic, concentrated on trouble-solving even with doable disagreements, explained Steven Leahy, latest director of authorities relations at Seattle Schools. Leahy labored with Duff at the chamber from 1979 until finally 1995, as well as from 2001 right up until 2009, when Leahy was president and CEO there and Duff served as senior adviser.
Large civic initiatives Duff labored on, this sort of as the convention centre, have been “marathons, not sprints, so you have received to have a ton of resilience, patience, tenacity to maintain doing work at them,” Leahy said.
Between his higher-profile assignments was the Mariners. Duff was associated in the negotiations to have Redmond-based mostly Nintendo of The united states buy the baseball team in 1992. The former owner experienced plans to go the staff to Florida. Soon after scrutiny from Key League Baseball, which opposed a non-U.S. or Canadian team getting a U.S. group, Nintendo purchased the Mariners for $125 million and marketed the workforce for $661 million to To start with Avenue Enjoyment in 2016.
Leahy stated Duff was also a mentor to lots of. He would invite early-career specialists to chamber conferences and benefit their input when building selections. One of Duff’s lifelong lessons to Leahy’s job was “consultative leadership,” which suggests a leader’s toughness lies in their crew, Leahy stated.
“He experienced a point on his wall endlessly [that] I’ll never overlook: You are conversing to a parade of persons who are continually going ahead, not a group that is standing in a single put,” Leahy reported. He extra that section of Duff’s legacy to Seattle was building the metropolis a vibrant, inclusive location.
In a 2010 op-ed printed in The Seattle Times, Duff wrote about how the chamber aided pass a $131 million bond problem in 1987 that expanded and upgraded Harborview Health care Heart, which is now managed by UW Medication.
Ahead of relocating to the Seattle region, Duff served in the Korean War from 1952 when he was drafted until finally 1954 when he returned. He afterwards became the govt vice president of the Detroit Chamber of Commerce. There, he led the business enterprise community’s response to the wake of the 1967 Detroit riot. The riot, led by a police raid of an unlicensed bar, was the “largest civil disturbance of 20th century The united states,” with 43 deaths, 1,700 fires and a lot more than 7,000 arrests, according to the Detroit Historical Society.
A yr later on, Duff was recruited to the Seattle chamber.
Following Duff retired from the Seattle chamber, he and his wife began a charitable Christian foundation known as Joint Heirs Ministry, in accordance to his son Bruce Duff. The foundation supported nonprofits these kinds of as The Free Wheelchair Mission, which supplies wheelchairs to people today in creating international locations. Duff also aided nonprofits discover about organization administration, his son mentioned.
Duff is survived by his spouse Marilyn his little ones Doreen Duff-Dings, Bruce Duff and Laura Jones 9 grandchildren a few fantastic-grandchildren three nieces and lots of extended spouse and children members.
Bruce Duff stated his father was a dependable, really serious human being but had a sly wit when surrounded by family and close close friends. “In business, church, all people who realized him respected him,” Bruce Duff mentioned.
In addition to his quick comebacks, George Duff’s granddaughter Dania Duff-Dings mentioned he was client, generous and attentive with his relatives.
“My grandpa left behind a legacy — rather pretty much, with all the things he did for Seattle — but to us grandkids he was just that: grandpa,” mentioned 33-12 months-aged Duff-Dings.