In Memoriam : David Dungan

David Dungan David Quincy Dungan - age: 84
(August 10, 1939 to November 25, 2023 )
Resident of Visalia, California

Visitation Information:
Visitation will be held on Saturday, December 16, 2023 from 9-11 a.m. at the Visalia Community Church of Christ at 3838 S Court St, Visalia, CA 93277. Burial will take place at the Exeter District Cemetery on Monday, December 18, 2023 at 10 a.m.

Obituary:
David Quincy (DQ, Duke) Dungan was born in Exeter, California on August 1, 1939 to Elizabeth Lucinda Adams and Jack Marshall Dungan. He was the youngest of three surviving children. The oldest was Marsha Adams Dungan and the middle child was Thomas Nelson Dungan.
Duke attended grade school in Exeter and graduated from Exeter Union High School in 1957. He participated in swimming competitions during all school and college years. He broke a national record during competition when he was 12 years old. In 2007, he was inducted into the Exeter Union High School Sports Hall of Fame.
He spent his youth vacationing in Mineral King with his parents where he developed a great love of the area. The summer of 1957 when he was 18 years old was a busy one. Duke worked for Mineral King Pack Station with Bill and Marilyn DeCarteret. He was hired as the cook, but Bill always said that he was actually hired for his entertainment abilities. Bill loves to tell the story of Duke making biscuits that were so hard not even the dog would eat them.
Also that summer, Duke and a friend, Charlie, asked their parents to support them in a business venture in which they would lease the Silver City Store and cabins to manage for the summer of 1957. They had quite an adventure and whopping stories to tell. Like the time, they tried to rope a bear! They set the trap and waited long enough to fully think this through. Then they rolled up the rope and decided to go home thinking who would have who. Would they have the bear or the bear have them? Duke said that was the best decision of his life!
Duke attended the University of California at Davis and graduated in 1961 completing his degree in Ag Business Management. After college, he married his high school sweetheart, Linda Huckaby, and they had 3 children, Sally, Tim, and Paul. Also in 1961, he completed the Sunkist Training Program in Sanger, California and began working at various packing houses. He later managed several packing houses including Fillmore, Ventura Lemon, Grandview Heights, Exeter Citrus, Klink Citrus to mention a few.
Duke was active in community organizations such as Rotary, Kiwanis, and Boy Scouts of America. He earned his Eagle Scout when he was 18 years old and was a scout leader for many years. He was a positive influence in the lives of many young men. His influence resulted in his son and grandson each earning Eagle Scout as well.
Duke was a generous, loving, kind, man. He was known for his wonderful sense of humor and talent of storytelling. It was a common occurrence for him to be in a group of people having a conversation and stating, “I have a story to tell you about that.”
Duke was a citrus farmer as was his dad. He helped his dad as a young boy working the citrus ranches. He then owned citrus ranches along with his brother Tom Dungan. Duke loved to take us all out to the ranches and teach us everything we needed to know about growing citrus from Quick Decline to Stubborn Disease to feather growth. He loved the ranches!!
In 1999, Duke and Linda built a cabin in Silver City near Mineral King. Sadly, Linda passed away in 2005.
In 2006, Duke met and married Janice Bostick Coburn. They honeymooned in Hawaii and established their first home in Porterville. He would always tell the story of Jan working at the State Hospital and when she came to the living unit with her engagement ring on her finger, the clients grouped around her asking about her finance’. They were concerned if this man was going to take care of Miss Jan. He was always a little worried that these clients may have someone on the outside “take care of him” if he didn’t take care of Miss Jan.
Duke and Jan enjoyed traveling and trips to the cabin. They enjoyed visits to the cabin for nearly 18 years. This is the place he loved! One day he received a call from a neighbor cabin owner that informed him, “Duke I think you’ve had a visitor at your cabin!” It was a bear! The bear broke in through a slightly opened window and ransacked the kitchen pantry. What a mess to clean up! He found empty bags of frozen blackberries and cool whip outside by the wood pile. He found a peanut butter jar licked so clean one would not have known it contained any peanut butter except for the label attached to the jar. Evidently, this was a she bear because she didn’t break any china and she ate all the chocolate in the pantry.
Duke loved his grandchildren, ten in all, and one great-granddaughter. They loved visiting at our home and the cabin. He loved taking them fishing or hiking in Mineral King. Caylee caught her first fish with Grandpa at the Kaweah River Bridge. She was so excited. He taught her how to clean it, but this wasn’t her favorite thing to do. Another adventure with the grandchildren was hunting for the railroad tie. There had been a recent flood at Silver City and it washed out a railroad tie Duke had put across the creek as a walk bridge. After hiking down the creek, the grandchildren were so excited to find it—now the work of loading it and bringing it back to the cabin.
Duke loved the mountains! He always said if you live here in the central valley and haven’t been to Yosemite, you’ve sinned. And now Duke, as the song says, “ go rest high on that mountain, son your work on earth is done.”