Commissioner Clyde Duke

My past work experience (20 years plus) was with a company doing roofing construction. When I left that firm, they were the largest in the nation.

April and I got engaged while we were fighting the Panorama fire in the foothills of San Bernardino California. We lost 365 homes within a 48-hour period. It was my first real experience with wild land and structure fires! In 1990, we moved to Orcas full time to raise our family. Our daughter Megan was then 4 and Rachel 2 years of age. Melinda Mulligan was our Midwife for son Brian, which is how we met her husband and Orcas Paramedic Dave “Z” Zoeller.
 I joined the Orcas Island Fire Department in 1992 just as Chief Don Jensen was coming on board.  At that time, officers Gary Bennett and John Cavalli were acting as Chief and Battalion Chief.  I have served as volunteer firefighter and lieutenant at both the Rosario Station 23 and then Eastsound Station 21. I received Firefighter of the Year in 1995. I also served as vice-president and president for the Volunteer Firefighter/EMT Association.  In October of 1999, our family left the island on a sailing trip from Orcas Island to New Zealand and back. It took 18 months and it was the trip of a lifetime. We then returned to Orcas.  I have served on the Eastsound Water Users Board, and Orcas Center’s selection committee for their board members, as well as steering committees in the community. April and I own a roofing business established in 1991 on Orcas and have had the privilege of working with many of the residents here. I served as the Chair for the last Chief Search Committee as well as for the Long Range Planning Committee for the Fire Division. I rejoined the Fire District as a Fire Commissioner in 2004. I have been the Chair for the Board for the last three years. My term ends December of 2009.