Dan Duffy, Dedicated Dad, 65, Long-Time Morgan Park Resident

Dan Duffy’s Greyhound, Scarlett, slowly rises from the living room couch she shared with the man everyone simply knew as “Duff” and who rescued the former race dog from certain extermination.

Trotting slowly around the home, Scarlett sniffs through hallways and an open bedroom door, abandoned in her own home.

Scarlett’s master is not returning after succumbing to cancer and a collapsing body that could no longer take the blasts of chemotherapy. With his son Tim by his side, Daniel Duffy, 65, died at 3:30 a.m. Saturday, February 8, 2020 in Little Company of Mary Hospital, following a fierce, but quiet, battle to save his own life.

“It happened so fast,” said Tim, who a few hours later would be picking up his sister Mary Margaret at Midway Airport.

“There are no words that can express the love and admiration I had for Duff,” said Bill “Harp” Mitchell, a neighborhood friend who watched with others as Duffy bravely answered life’s unfair challenges and redirected his priorities.

Tim and Mary Margaret are Duffy’s greatest accomplishments in his shortened life.

Widowed, the single father rebounded after the loss of his wife Kathy, who died in 2005 due to complications from diabetes. Duffy mustered the strength to harness his own vices to funnel his sole dedication and affections to his son and daughter.

That they would leave for college, move off 109th Street in Morgan Park and into satisfying careers is testament to his Duff’s perseverance, guidance and ability to inspire them to each find their own way.

While Mary Margaret completed her undergraduate in Psychology and is completing her masters in social work in Colorado, Tim flourished in California and found a career he loves with State Farm. Duffy found companionship in Scarlett, a sleek tan brown racer “spent” from circling the betting track at Lake Geneva Racetrack.

“Scarlett would lay on the couch waiting for dad to pet her and as he started to pet her, she would do the ‘huckle buck’ - as my dad would say - spinning, twisting moving around and just loving it all,” said Mary.

“Scarlett kept my dad moving and gave him company,” said son Tim. “Scarlett would run small track races in the back yard.”

A single, empty nester, Duffy found his inner Renaissance man, drawing comfort in gardening, ballroom dancing and video games, while jetting off to graduation ceremonies or awaiting the next visit from his kids, whom he would brag about to neighbors.

Cancer crept into Duffy’s life while he was enjoying a second career at Mount Greenwood’s Ace Hardware store on 111th Street. He told no one and life went on.

During lunch breaks and after work when Duffy would pull his jeep up the long driveway, Scarlett would howl loud enough for a dozen neighbors to hear. Duff would surface moments later walking Scarlett around the block, unleashed, but never far, after years of being contained to cages, starting gates and stadium tracks. Neighbors noticed Duff’s weight loss.

Duff was always more inclined to help someone in need than even himself.

Neighbor Frannie Figel was home alone and had been instructed to start the gas grill - a first. Duff noticed her struggling and cut through the driveway fence to assist the helpless co-ed. As he triggered the wand looking for the grill’s ignition opening, a ball of fire engulfed his head, knocking him back and giving him a grooming he hadn’t counted on.

“I was so scared,” said Figel. “And Duff just laughs, and says: ‘Don’t worry about it.’.”

Duff enrolled in the Arthur Murray Dance Studio, embracing ballroom dancing and Latin style lessons. Some summer nights he practiced solo on his back deck holding an imaginary partner and dipping her under the light of an eastern moon.

“Dance made my dad the happiest,” said Tim. “I remember the first time he was dancing competitively in front of a crowd. I came home from college just to be a part of it. As we were leaving the house to head for the studio, he started crying.”

“He was so excited and nervous,” said Mary. “You could see the true passion he had for dance. It was beautiful. My dad met many great people through his dance studio and he always thought about them.”

Later, Duffy turned his dancing prowess into dance trips to Banff in Alberta Canada, and later took dance cruises to stay in step and top of the deck.

“Dad received a lot of trophies and medals from dance, winning gold, silver and bronze in different competitions,” said Tim. “He worked so hard for those gold medals.”

Duff was “King of the 109th Street Block parties” held the second weekend every August. The Duffy home - situated exactly in the middle of the block - hosted children’s games on the parkway lawn while kids rode bikes up and down his steeper driveway apron.

Near dusk Duff would deliver trays of delicious, multi-colored Jell-O shots “because nobody’s driving home tonight.”

A 1973 graduate of Mendel, Duffy went to Regis University in Colorado for a time and returned to his beloved neighborhood taking a job from Frank Cunningham, an owner who looked out for kids and employed hundreds at his neighborhood staple at 111th and Artesian.

“Working at Red’s Drive-In was one of the best times of his life,” said Tim. “Dad always told stories about Red’s and that’s where he met some of his best, long-time friends.”

Those friends would gather annually on “Duff’s back deck” on “Parade Day” for the Southside Irish Saint Patrick’s Day Parade. There were no invitations, just an implicit understanding Duffy would be ready with an Irish greeting for the Mitchells, Greenfields, Quinns, Loobys, McCoys and the rest of the VPs.

Prior to working at the hardware store, Duffy worked as a handyman at senior citizen residences.

“All the older people fell in love with Dad,” said Mary. “They baked stuff for him and gave him presents for all the extra work he did in their apartments.”

“I went to work a few times with Dad,” said Tim. “And you could see how loved he was and how much he loved his work and doing things for them.”

Duffy is survived by his children Tim and Mary Margaret; sisters Sissy, Patricia, Nancy, Sally, Peggy and many nieces and nephews.

Visitation will be held Thursday, Feb. 13 from 4:00 to 9:00 p.m. at Donnellan Funeral Home; A prayer service will be held Friday Feb. 14th at 11 a.m. at Donnellan Funeral Home, 10525 South Western Avenue, Chicago, IL 60643.