Duane E. Hitz, Jr.

The day

Thursday, July 7th 2011, 40 year old Duane was biking with his friend Robb and they stopped to take a short rest at a radio controlled model airplane field (Cherry Creek State Park's Remote-controlled Model Airplane Field). Duane made a comment about the maneuvers that one of the airplanes was making and then collapsed.

Several people ran over to help, a doctor among them. He was taken to the hospital via ambulance. I arrived at the emergency room and was told that he had passed away. It was a massive heart attack.

Duane's Family

Duane loves his family. And his family loves him. Duane's parents Duane Sr. and Theresa Hitz just celebrated their 49th Anniversary (7 x 7, as Michelle notes) exactly a week before Duane's passing. I have learned that Duane's total and powerful power of love is an inherited trait in our many vacations with Duane's parents.

Duane's sisters Amy and Michelle are also central to Duane's life in his many vacations with them and their families. Phone calls with his parents and sisters were part of almost every day. His sisters and their families Amy and Seth Miller, their children Jake, Hannah and Ben and Michelle and Mike Wallick, their children Shane, Katie and Andrea have been his pleasure to watch grow through the years.

Duane's Friends

Duane values and cherishes his friendships. Duane's lifelong friend Brent Sheily has shared so many laughs and good times with Duane. Trish Doran-Haynes shared the great gift of Duane's constant companions, their cats. Kurt Koller, Dave Hoffman, Robb and Alice Mayfield, Parker Smith, Roman Richardson, James Thomson, and everyone who has shared stories, laughs, international education and business, Bob trips, bike rides, 14-er hikes, golfing, and dinners with Duane, you have filled his life with joy. Friends also from the years of earning his BA in History and Asian Studies from St. Olaf College and his MBA degrees from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and the National University of Singapore.

Duane's Company

Duane loves his company. A serial entrepreneur who started his first business at the age of 18, Duane was relentless about giving life to his ideas. And life was given again and again to brilliant ideas by a brilliant mind. But finally when James Thomson believed in Duane's talents and gave him support in every single way, their company ServiceLogix (www.servicelogix.com) took off. Parker Smith fearlessly began this adventure with them. And it grew. And it grew. Our college friend Roman Richardson is now another fearless adventurer with the company. Their faith in Duane and each other has paid off. It is now a profitable company with revenues expected to exceed 1 million dollars 2011.

Duane's Megan Buness

Duane loves his Megan. And I love my Duane. My first boyfriend. We met my freshman year at St. Olaf College, working in the cafeteria together. He liked that I laughed at his jokes and gave me his phone number. That night, I dreamt a vivid dream about Duane on a mountain top, looking up at shooting stars. Two stars collided and burst into 5, landing on the horizon. I woke with the impact. I should call this guy. I was 18. On that day, my sister's daughter was born. She's now 18.

In my junior year, Duane took a semester around the world, starting in Europe. He had just shown me this new thing called email. When he was in China, I sent him a Dear John email. We now speculate that it might have been the first one. With time he made peace with me, writing me a prayer:

The Prayer

Keep my love happy
And free from pain;
Hold her in your heart,
Close and tight.
Make all of those around her
Pure and good of soul.
Give her what she wants,
Or if what she wants
Will do her no good,
Give her what she needs
To be at peace.
Please love her always
Because she is good
And loves the world.
Help her to come
To know You,
To know Love,
So that her life
Will be filled with joy.
If she sins,
Forgive her.
If she cries,
Relieve her.
If she loves,
Make it pure.
If she loses love
Help her to carry the burden.
Keep her in your thoughts,
This wonderful child of the Universe
And be with her always.

April 21 2001, I am a month away from my Denver University Masters program graduation. I come home to a message on the answering machine. "Is this Megan from St. Olaf? This is Duane, I live here in Denver..." We had been living 5 miles from each other for the last two years. That night's reunion was the beginning of our relationship's return. The next night, he reads the above poem to me. Then - that mind of his - calculates the time date from when the poem was saved to the time date of the message he left on my answering machine: 7 year, 7 days... etc down to 7 seconds. My watch had also stopped that day. It was time. And now the day of Duane's passing: 7/7

April 24 2011, Duane and I are celebrating Easter dinner with friends Robb and Alice Mayfield. He had them sneak in a large box. The card on the box: "Happy Easter!"
Inside the box: another box. With a Happy Birthday card (which was the day before): "I Love You!"
Inside that box: a gift bag with card taped to handle: "Happy Anniversary!" (celebrating 10 years)
Inside the gift bag: a tiny box. At the bottom of its card: "Will you marry me?" The ring in the box.

We had planned a November 25 2011 wedding, to celebrate Thanksgiving with family and friends as well as Duane Sr.'s 72nd birthday together.

Only one detail I had to figure out: what to sing at the wedding. The morning Duane died, I dreamt of a friend singing West Side Story's One Hand, One Heart with the lyric: "even death won't part us now." That's perfect, I thought in the dream. I've often told Duane I'm coming for him when we get to the next place.