Chris Hildreth - Duke University
Duke trustee emerita Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans taken in 2005 at Duke's Nasher Museum of Art.
DURHAM -- Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans, a Duke descendent who was devoted to philanthropy, education, civil rights and the arts, died today at the age of 91.
She died this morning at Duke Hospital, said her assistant, Kathy Harrison.
Semans was born into extraordinary privilege as a member of the family that founded Duke University. She was great-granddaughter to Washington Duke, granddaughter of Benjamin N. Duke and Sarah Duke, and daughter of Mary Duke and Anthony Biddle. Yet she didn't get caught up in a whirlwind of ball gowns and blue bloods. She once said, "New York society terrified me...I'm not good at keeping up with the Joneses."
Instead, she set about living a life of substance in Durham, where she married twice, raised seven children and served in a seemingly endless number of roles, including mayor pro tem of Durham, trustee at Duke University and trustee of several family foundations, including the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation named for her mother. She was a passionate supporter of civil rights, working for affordable housing in Durham and serving on the board of Lincoln Community Health Center, a provider of health care to low-income residents.
"I am pleading for an extraordinary devotion to humanity," she told Duke University graduates in a 1983 commencement speech. "In addition to your employment, do something that benefits the human condition."
She followed that credo, taking on issues such as poverty and racial discrimination with intense intellect and fierce determination. But she never took herself too seriously. A petite dynamo, she had a big mane of light brown curls and was known to wear mini skirts well into her golden years.
"She was the conscience of the university," said Dr. Keith Brodie, former Duke president. "She was the go-to person when someone was going through a tough time. She wielded great power in her sweet, diminutive way."
Duke President Richard Brodhead sent an e-mail to the Duke community Wednesday, saying that Semans "supported every good thing that has happened at this university." But she was more than the sum of her accomplishments, he said.
"She had a care for others and a belief in human possibility that made every encounter an inspiring event," his e-mail said. "All who experienced her grace, warmth, enthusiasm and can-do spirit will remember her for years to come. Duke mourns the passing of one of its greatest friends."
The influence of Semans and her late husband, Dr. James Semans, extended beyond Duke and Durham.
They were patrons of the arts in North Carolina, where they were instrumental in the early days of the N.C. School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, now UNC School of the Arts. They also were big supporters of the N.C. Museum of Art. In 1966 at the state museum, her family foundation established the Mary Duke Biddle Gallery for the Blind, among the world's first sculpture collections meant to be experienced through touch.
Mary Duke Biddle was born in New York City in 1920. Her father, a U.S. Army general, had a diplomatic career that culminated in an ambassadorship to Spain. Her parents separated in when she was in her teens, and her mother returned to Durham with the children. They lived for a time with her grandmother, Sarah Duke, who was devoted to the university and to the state. "We were brought up to think the governor of North Carolina was someone sacred," Semans said in a 1969 interview.
At 15, she enrolled at Duke as a special student to study history. Three years later she married Dr. Josiah Trent, a recent medical school graduate who would become a professor of surgery at Duke. The couple had four daughters, but Trent died in 1948 when the girls were young.
A few years later, she married Semans, another Duke surgeon. The couple had three children and were married more than 50 years until Semans' death in 2005.
Semans was a force for good at Duke, in Durham and beyond, say those who knew her.
"Mary Semans was a great public servant," said longtime friend William Friday, former UNC president. "She entered every worthy cause with great enthusiasm because she knew she could make things happen and change would come....North Carolina will greatly miss this noble lady."
