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DURHAM — In the soaring house her ancestors had built, Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans was remembered Monday as a benevolent force of nature and a selfless servant of others.
Mrs. Semans, who died last week at the age of 91, lived “a life completely with the express purpose to benefit others,” Joel Fleishman, a long-time university professor and administrator told a Duke Chapel audience where every pew was jammed. “She loved to do good for others. In fact, she lived for others.”
In a 90-minute memorial service that had some of the pomp of a state funeral but the warmth of saying goodbye to a beloved old friend, Fleishman and others called on those mourning to continue Mrs. Semans’ legacy of involvement and concern.
“Everyone here should resolve to do more,” said former Gov. Jim Hunt, recalling the “kind but steely look” Mrs. Semans would use on him when she wanted him to work harder. “All that we can be and must be — that’s what Mary would want.”
Mrs. Semans, the great-niece of the founder of the university, a former city council member and a longtime philanthropist, had an extraordinary range of involvements, and the memorial service was indicative of that.
It drew the cream of Durham, the region and the state, from Hunt and Gov. Bev Perdue, to Erskine Bowles and Bill Friday, from Mike Krzyzewski and Bucky Waters to Bill Bell and Chuck Davis.
Duke students and faculty shared pews with elected officials and university leaders, old friends shared the space with new colleagues.
The mourners came early, waiting in line outside the chapel as the Duke carillon bells chimed on a sparkling late winter afternoon.
Fleishman recalled that when Mrs. Semans gave the commencement oration to the Duke class of 1983 the sky had been dark and rainy — until she got up to speak.
“At that very point, “ he said, “the clouds parted and the sun came out, bright and strong, as if to honor that woman of valor.”
While Mrs. Semans was an icon to the university, she was also “one of the pillars of our community,” said Bell of the woman who had been called the first lady of Durham.
“She had an undying devotion to Duke and Durham and that accrued to the benefit of everyone who calls this community home,” Bell said.
The service began when Mrs. Semans’ gleaming casket, festooned with red, pink and white roses, slowly made its way down the long center aisle of the chapel. The organ boomed.
Chapel Dean Sam Wells noted that when Mrs. Semans was born in 1920, “Duke University was no more than a twinkle in her great-uncle’s eye.”
But Mrs. Semans, Wells said, “has been a twinkle in our eyes ever since.”
The real reason “we’re here today,” he added, was “because Mary Semans was a sword that pierced our own souls — with her wisdom, her kindness, her courage. She pierced our souls with her love.”
University President Richard Brodhead also noted those twinkling eyes.
“She had such a sparkle,” Brodhead said. “If you knew Mary, then you knew you mattered.”
The state mattered to her, as well, Hunt said.
“It was a lucky day for North Carolina when Mary Semans came to Duke University and to the family home in Durham,” he said. She helped, he said, all the governors who lived in the governors’ mansion — “whether they wanted her help or not.”
Thomas Kenan III, a trustee of The Duke Endowment, noted that Mrs. Semans “would probably blush a little at all these people coming for me.”
But near the end of the service, the Rev. Dennis Campbell, the former dean of the Duke Divinity School, noted what many in the audience felt.
“Aside from the praise,” he said, “Mary would have loved every minute of this.”
