Fran Duncan of Clark County has worn many hats over the years. She has been a CIA operative traveling across Latin America and Europe. She spent more than four decades in classrooms from Florida to Clark County.
Today, she is a steady presence in the local horse world, serving as secretary of the Clark County Saddle Club and remaining active with the Clark County Executive Horse Council.
The wisdom that guided her career in intelligence, education and community leadership began much earlier, on the shores of Newport, Rhode Island, as the impacts of World War II crept toward American soil.
Wartime beginnings in Newport
It was 1940, before the United States had formally entered World War II. British ships pulled into Newport Harbor to refuel and resupply, their crews visible from shore. The war felt both distant and close, unfolding across the Atlantic but washing up, at times, on Rhode Island’s beaches. Duncan, who was 6 years old at the time, can still recall what she witnessed.
“I was down on the beach one winter day. In those days, it was safe for little kids to go down, and I saw the back of a life jacket. I wanted it, so I started digging, and there was a body in it,” she said.
The sailor’s body had drifted in from a British vessel torpedoed offshore. For a child, it was a blunt introduction to a global war. Soon, blackout curtains covered windows at home, and fear of enemy submarines became part of daily life along the coast.
“We were absolutely taught in school to hate the Germans and the Italians and the Japanese. I mean, it was unbelievable,” she recalled.
Her father’s career also influenced her perspective on the world. As a treasury department agent sworn in on the same day as J. Edgar Hoover, he pursued bootleggers during Prohibition and once gathered Al Capone’s fingerprints for the FBI by having him sign documents registering an associate as a captain of a boat used for smuggling stolen alcohol. He would later join the CIA.
As World War II ended, he was assigned to quietly listen to and report on German nationals and sympathizers, gathering information about how they felt about Germany’s defeat and the collapse of the Nazi regime.
Duncan did not fully understand the scope of that work at the time. Much of what her father did remained unspoken until she herself joined the CIA.
Into the CIA
After graduating from the University of Rhode Island, Duncan signed up to speak with a CIA recruiter. She officially joined on Aug. 1, 1955. The screening process was intense.
“The polygraph test, I had to sit … with a band on (my arm) checking pressure and all, and the man was behind me and it was a (small) room,” she recalled.
Many participants failed the psychological tests, she recalled. The most difficult part for Duncan arrived when the examiner asked her to multiply large numbers in her head.
“So when it was all over, I said, ‘How far off was I on the multiplication?’ He said, ‘You got it right,’ and I said, ‘That's a first,’” she laughed.
Despite her knowledge of French and German, Latin America would be her first assignment. She visited U.S. embassies, met with military and State Department contacts and reported back to Washington.
“We were trying to keep the people from going communist. And I would go down and have to check with them and what they were doing,” she said.
Her journey would take her to every country in South and Central America, as well as European nations, including Russia. One lesson stood out to Duncan. In several countries, she saw deep poverty up close. Well-dressed American officials could not simply lecture struggling communities about politics or communism without first understanding their daily reality.
“You're never going to get anywhere dressed like that, trying to (convince) people who hope they have a meal come in that night,” she said.
Her CIA career lasted from 1955 to 1957.
“I could have stayed with the CIA in an office 50 weeks a year and I certainly didn't want that, so I quit,” she said.
A life in the classroom
Duncan turned to teaching after her time in the CIA, first in Florida. She would eventually teach at Miami Senior High School, one of the largest in the country at the time. Her focuses included contemporary world problems, world history, US history, Latin American history, psychology and sociology
“I know I had 54 kids in a world history class one year, but they were nice kids and they behaved,” she said.
Over time, she earned a master’s degree and then a Ph.D. in education. In 1976, she moved to Clark County and began teaching at Columbia River High School, later Jason Lee Middle School and Hudson’s Bay High School. In total, she taught for about 42 years, retiring in 1999.
One of her greatest teaching legacies was the Model United Nations, where students would act out U.N. council meetings as representatives of different nations. She expanded the program locally, drawing hundreds of students and hosting multi-day assemblies.
“I think you give the kids a job to do like that, and they come through. They all did. They liked it. I didn't have to worry about behavior,” she said.
As information leaked, her background eventually became known to students.
“The kids came one day… very quietly, and they looked at me and one of them… said, ‘Were you really a spy?’ And I said, ‘Who told you that?’ ‘Mrs. so-and-so, told us you were a spy, were you?’ ‘Yes,’” she recalled.
As much of her work was still classified at the time, Duncan could only tell students how she became involved in the CIA.
“I can tell you a few things. You have to have a college degree. You have to be able to speak another language. You have to pass a bunch of different kinds of tests, you know, and I told them about the psychological and the polygraph,” she said.
Looking back, Duncan sees a clear line from her CIA days to the classroom.
“It was, it was great because I learned so much about these countries that I didn't know before. I did teach Latin American history, too,” she said.
Horses and community roots
Horses have been a constant thread through Duncan’s life. She rode horses in Rhode Island as a child and remembers the first postwar horse show in 1945.
“Hundreds of people went to that show. We didn’t have trailers; horses were packed in vans,” she laughed.
She earned her judge’s card in the 1970s and, in 1986, was called to step in as a last-minute judge at the Clark County Fair horse show.
“Boy, I was there till midnight every night, but I had a good time, and they liked me, so they asked me to come back the next year,” she said.
Duncan became even more active in Clark County’s horse community following the passing of her husband. She has served as board president of the Clark County Executive Horse Council, the Clark County Saddle Club and the Washington Trail Riders Association.
Today, she serves as the saddle club’s secretary, leads its trail course committee and helps collect donations to fund medals for the Clark County Fair horse show through 4-H.
Whether she was gathering information overseas, guiding students through world history or advocating for local riders, Fran Duncan has spent her life stepping up and staying involved. She still assists where needed, offering guidance and steady behind-the-scenes support to keep the local horse community strong.
