2,000 remember mission president

HEBER CITY — About 2,000 people Saturday paid their respects to a Heber businessman and religious leader who was killed in a traffic accident May 10 while serving as president of the LDS Church's Uganda Kampala Mission.

"I don't see an empty seat in this room," President Thomas S. Monson, first counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said to those attending the memorial service for President Ralph L. Duke. "It is a wonderful tribute to a wonderful man."

President Duke, 57, and his wife, Kim, had just dropped off four missionaries at the Entebbe airport and were returning to the mission office when the accident occurred. Sister Duke was injured but was treated and released from the hospital.

President Duke was eager to serve the people of Africa, said President Monson, who issued the call to serve to the couple. He said he was impressed with how willingly the two prepared to leave the country — they were only given two-and-a-half weeks' notice.

"President Duke and his wife appeared to be perfect for the job," he said. "He reminds me of me — that's a compliment, I think."

President Monson read a letter from the First Presidency of the LDS Church addressed to President Duke's wife, Kim.

"We rejoice with you in your husband's life of service," he read. "He successfully used his talents to do good in the world. ... We appreciate his dedicated service to the church."

Michael Moulton said he learned a lot from President Duke, when they worked together when Duke was stake president for the LDS Church.

"Ralph used to say we should not be involved in the thick of thin things," he said. "I think Ralph as endowed with the power to work in the thick of very important things all the time."

In addition to a long resume of church service including three LDS missions, President Duke was a Wasatch County commissioner from 1999 to 2003. He also successfully turned a small grocery store into a thriving business — Duke's IGA.

President Duke served as the bishop of an LDS ward twice, but was just as dedicated to the job the second time as the first, said Thomas Low, who was one of President Duke's counselors. That's just the kind of man he was.

"For him the work was the glory," he said.

The mission president had the uncanny ability to inspire others to be better, said his son, R.L. Duke.

"He was a giant of a man in many ways," he said, choking back tears. "I have a long way to go to fulfill the measure of example that has been set for me. But for my father, I'll try."

President Duke never lost his sense of humor, his children said. He loved to tease and joke with his four children and nine grandchildren.