Duane Voskuil

BISMARCK, N.D. – Dr. Duane Voskuil, teacher, scholar, builder, poet and violin maker, whose expertise and achievements ranged from philosophy, science and the arts, died Feb. 20, 2025, at his home in Bismarck, N.D., from complications of Parkinson’s disease. He was 86.

A man of many skills, he made his life’s work the study of human thought and applied those ideas to enlighten his students and make the world a better place. Besides teaching, he founded two Bismarck businesses and brought leadership to the local arts community.

His Celebration of Life is set for 11:00 AM, Saturday, June 7, 2025, at Parkway Funeral Service, 2330 Tyler Parkway, Bismarck, with visitation one hour prior with music.

Duane Martin Voskuil was born in Sisseton, S.D., March 26, 1938, the oldest child of Wallace Christian Voskuil and Marion Elizabeth Martin. He grew up in Wisconsin, living in several towns until the family settled on his mother’s family farm near Hammond, Wis. Duane excelled in scholarship and high school sports, setting a state long jump track record that lasted decades. In college, he continued to play football and boxed Golden Gloves. A gifted athlete, he was a runner into his late 70s.

He studied engineering at the University of Wisconsin, then transferred to Hope College in Holland, Mich., for the ministry, graduating in 1960 with a double major in philosophy and English. Excited by philosophy’s history of ideas and its rigorous, mind-expanding questions and systems, he changed focus to teaching and writing. His expertise in process metaphysics and epistemology became the core of his lifelong study and classroom teaching.

After college graduation, he married Hope classmate Shirley Doyle and had three children, Sonia, Eric and Martin, while both taught, and he pursued advanced degrees. Duane studied under metaphysician Charles Hartshorne for his master’s at Emory University, Atlanta, and obtained his doctorate in philosophy at University of Missouri, Columbia, in 1969, writing on (Alfred North) “Whitehead’s Metaphysical Aesthetic.”

That year, he joined the University of North Dakota Department of Philosophy, teaching core courses in Introduction to Philosophy from his own textbook, logic, ethics, epistemology, philosophies of science and religion, history of philosophy, metaphysics, aesthetics, and Honors Colloquia. He chaired the department from 1972-75. In 1971, UND awarded him a post-doctoral fellowship at the New School for Behavioral Studies in its Center for Teaching and Learning.

During this time, his family undertook a rural lifestyle near Manvel, N.D., in a small house with a cast-iron stove and wood-fired furnace. He embraced gardening, eating and cooking whole foods, and the work and value of self-sufficiency.

This tenacity to do it oneself, go it alone, and do so without fear was a defining trait. To the end of his life, he could make-do with anything if it was usable or fixable. If not, he would design it and make it, often for the pure joy of creating something new. He was also a man who cared and loved deeply, the one who always took the family pictures, saved the old scale, recorded the words, and wrote the memory.

His caring ethic extended to social justice issues on the environment, feminism, gender equality, and body integrity. His bold activism alone and with others on uncomfortable subjects inspired papers, lectures, panels, and court and legislative outcomes in North Dakota, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere. It was always his hopeful task to make a difference.

He kept learning at UND, obtaining a Bachelor of Fine Arts in visual art/ceramics and wrote a book about glaze testing. His art portfolio contains sculpture, woodcuts, prints, ceramics, two-dimensional works, jewelry, an art print press, spinning wheel, loom, telescope, and published poetry.

He wrote a philosophy textbook, a book on Alfred North Whitehead’s metaphysics, and articles in professional philosophy and violin journals. His collaboration with violin maker Carleen Hutchins on acoustics of tuning and New Violin Family instruments is notable. Besides guest lectures in the U.S., he presented in Salzburg, Austria, and did a People-to-People exchange to China at eight universities with other professionals in his field.

After Shirley left the marriage, Duane met Vicki Lindemann on the UND campus. They married June 7, 1975, adding Vanessa and David to the family and Vicki’s son Bryan. Together 50 years, they combined individual strengths to craft a life of adventure, inclusion and love.

After Duane taught briefly in Wisconsin, they moved in 1981 to Bismarck, where Duane founded Solearth Corp., a passive-solar, earth-shelter design and construction business (1979-90) and built five houses. Concurrently, while also teaching in local colleges and public schools, he founded Voskuil Violins, operating his home shop for 38 years, most of them as the only violin business in North Dakota. He did rentals, sales and repairs and made more than 20 violin family instruments, including a bass and a Celtic harp.

In the community, he was Dakota West Arts Council board president, Dakota Academy for the Arts president, Bismarck Art & Galleries Association board member, Great Plains Institute of Theology faculty, Suzuki School of Music founding supporter, Storefront Food Coop charter organizer and board president, Bismarck Public Schools artist-in-residence, co-founder of the N.D. affiliate of NOCIRC, and art juror.

Memberships included the American Philosophical Association, Metaphysical Society of America, Violin Society of America, Catgut Acoustical Society, and Wilderness Society. After teaching, he became book reviewer for the Center for Process Studies journal.

He was a lifetime bird watcher who collected fossils, studied astronomy and quantum theory, and liked exploring abandoned places to see what could be found. Ever the seeker, he once wrote: “Philosophy, understood as the search for the most basic context of life’s meaning and purpose, has always challenged me to be involved in many areas of life. My path to philosophy is woven around lifelong interests in both aesthetic and moral values and in science and technical skills, and always with a passion to share my discoveries with others.”

Duane leaves his wife Vicki and their children, Sonia Voskuil, Eric Voskuil, Dr. Martin Voskuil (Dr. Sibyl Munson), David Voskuil, Vanessa Voskuil (Chris Baranko), and Bryan Drendel (Sally); 11 grandchildren, Alexander and Gwenhwyfar Sadie, Connor and Sophia Voskuil, Rowan and Anika Voskuil, Michael and Lilly Baranko, Matthew Drendel, Karl Drendel (Reese), Emily Wheeler (Max), and one great-grandchild. Also surviving are his siblings, Rev. Dr. Dennis Voskuil (Betty), Rev. Karen Mouw, Lou Grit (Dr. Dale Grit) and their families. Brother-in-law David Mouw, M.D., preceded him in death. Internment is St. Mary’s Cemetery, Bismarck.

The family suggests memorials to the Bismarck-Mandan Symphony, Bismarck Parkinson’s Support Group; the Center for Process Studies, 5678 S.E. Harlene St., Portland, Ore., 97222; and Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, P.O. Box 5014, Hagerstown, Md., 21741.