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| Flatiron Building, New York City, 1906 |
Their marriage must have been in serious trouble
by this time, and Maude and son had long since returned home to Washington to
live with her parents. To date, we
are unable to locate either wedding or divorce records. The only evidence for the marriage is
newspaper articles and the birth records of Arthur, Jr. We surmise that Arthur and Maude separated
soon after his return from Australia in the late summer of 1905, and they
probably finalized their divorce settlement by 1910.
Maude would remarry in 1913. Their only child was named Robert Holt
Featherstone, Jr. Interestingly,
that would make Maude the mother of two sets of “Juniors.” In 1921 she divorced Mr. Featherstone, and for a time, both
of Maude’s sons lived with her parents in Washington. By 1931 the boys and Maude were living in her deceased parents home. She never married again but continued living in D.C. until
her death in 1947. Arthur, Jr.
grew up living most of his life in Washington too. (In 1960 when I first attended Georgetown, Arthur, Jr. was
living in the college area as a clerk for the FAA and later the US Post
Office.)
-------------
Although Arthur was now the main breadwinner,
three of his unmarried sisters also continued to support the household. They worked in downtown Boston at a dry
goods store located down the street from the Boston Common: Mary was a
bookkeeper, Catherine C, an auditor, and 18-year-old Elise was an entry
clerk. The girls may have commuted
to work with Arthur, who worked only a few blocks away. The fourth sister, Julia, had married
in 1908 to a John Murphy and they moved ten miles west to Needham.
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| 16 Marlboro Street, Newton (July 2011) |
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| 1912 Illustration from "For Old Donchester" |
While living in the family home, Arthur wrote two
novels aimed at high school boys: On the Cinder Path, (1911) and, For Old Donchester (1912). Both of these stories focused on the
traits necessary to be a successful student athlete.
For
Old Donchester was a
fictional story seemingly set at his own Worcester Academy. The narrative follows the track career
of one of the students, Archie Hartley. It suggests that a good athlete must also exhibit a balance
between physical, mental and moral excellence. The book is well written, interesting, and generally very
upbeat. However, it is apparent
that it was created in a different era, as much of the language seems rather
archaic when read today, not unlike his earlier narratives.
Of her siblings, Helen achieved the highest grade level, completing the tenth grade. None of the others got beyond eighth grade. Helen and her two younger sisters worked as stenographers while her brothers went into the woodworking business.
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| Washington Times, 23 Feb 1911 and St Ann Church, Neponset |
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| 106 Dakota Street, Dorchester September 2014 |
In April 1912, they had their first
child, Arthur (Archie) Francis, Jr. It is rather amazing that there were now two Duffey sons with
the same name: Arthur, Jr. (1904) and Arthur, Jr. (1912). In February 1914 my father, John (Jack), was born. Both boys were born at the nearby Dorchester Cottage Hospital, a small facility with capacity for twelve patients run entirely by nurses.
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| Boston Post on Washington Street, 1944 |
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| Newspaper Row, 1927 |
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| Kenna Record (NM), 29 Aug 1913 |
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| Washington Times, 29 Apr 1914 |
In April of 1914, Arthur found time to take on a part-time secondary job as track coach at Tufts College (now Tufts University) in suburban Medford. He also continued his involvement with Georgetown, using his influence with the Boston Athletic Association to arrange track meets in 1911 and 1912 between Georgetown, Holy Cross and Boston College. He served as a substitute coach while his old friend, Georgetown’s Coach Foley, attended to other members of the team at another event in Baltimore.
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| Please click to enlarge |
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| 1st Lieut A.F. Duffey |
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| Training soldiers to relay, 1918 |
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| 74 Orvis Road, Arlington; September 2014 |
Even the latest Duffey home was getting a bit too crowded, so Arthur and Helen decided they could now afford to buy a new place. By late summer 1919, they purchased their first-and-only home at 74 Orvis Road in suburban Arlington. Built in 1916, the eight bedroom house featured a darkly painted wood exterior and a second floor porch. Arthur's youngest sister, Elise, had married an undertaker in 1913 and lived just down the street.
The Duffeys soon reached full strength with the birth of son, Bill, in December 1919, and Roger in January 1922.
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| Coach Duffey at Northeastern University, 1921 (click to enlarge) |
In the arena of amateur athletics, September
1921 brought a little encouraging news when the New England Registration Committee
of the AAU recommended that Arthur’s 9 3/5 seconds record for the 100-yard dash
from 1902 be restored to the official books. But the recommendation did not hold up and his record
ultimately remained stricken.
 |
| James Michael Curley (1874-1958) |
Mayor Curley shared a somewhat similar
background with Arthur. Both grew
up in Roxbury tenements, lost their fathers at a young age, and were known for
their genial personalities. Most
importantly, they enjoyed each other’s company. They often spent time together at the mayor’s second home at
Nantasket Beach.
Herbert Warren Wind, a friend of the mayor’s
children, wrote about his childhood encounter with Arthur in the mid-1920s. The article appeared in Sports Illustrated in December 1958:
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| Practice Practice Practice |
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| Ogden Standard Examiner, 15 June 1926 (with earlier photos for comparison) |
The Duffey family was the subject of a short magazine
article, appearing in the December 1927 issue of Popular Science. A photo captured the family (minus mother
Helen) jogging on Orvis Road, in front of their
home. At about this time, the taller, 15-year-old
Arthur, Jr. would be able to out-sprint his dad. In 1933 he would equal his dad’s high school
100-yard record with a 10.0 second sprint while attending Philips Exeter
Academy in New Hampshire.
The year 1929 provided a bit of controversy in the running world with the introduction of a device intended to expedite races and maintain the integrity of cinder tracks: portable, adjustable starting blocks. Prior to their use, athletes took time before each race to dig holes for their feet several inches below the track. Older runners like Charley Paddock initially dismissed the blocks as a mechanical aid, and Arthur likened the blocks to a springboard that would give runners an unfair starting advantage. Ironically, the face of the new Nicholson Starting Blocks was none other than 17-year-old Arthur, Jr. (aka Archie). Newspapers across the country featured Archie demonstrating their use. By the end of the year, the controversy had waned and most critics agreed that the blocks offered no real advantage to a runner's speed.
---------------
As Post head sports editor, Arthur established the tradition of predicting
winners of important sprints and the annual Boston Marathon. Below is a segment of one such Boston Post article, 7 July 1928
Olympic Track Trials held at Harvard Stadium:
DUFFEY PICKED WYCKOFF TO WIN!
Coast Wonder Runs True to Form in "Sprint of the
Century" and Fulfills Expert's Prediction
BY ARTHUR DUFFEY
Great sprinting races there have been in the
past. Great sprinting contests
there will continue to be in the future. I doubt very much if we will ever see any finer sprinting
displayed than that in the 100-metre run in the final Olympic tryouts in the
Harvard Stadium yesterday afternoon.
------------
On the family side of the things, the Duffeys
were living very comfortable lives in their Arlington neighborhood. In 1940, Arthur’s annual salary at the
Post was $3120. That was a good
salary then and was the highest in the neighborhood. In the 1930s and 40s, they would also rent out parts of their home for additional income. Their house was valued at $4500 in 1940, down from $14,000 just prior to the Depression. In 2015, the house was estimated to be worth $801,915.
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| Harvard varsity lacrosse 1936 |
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| Archie, Jack, Bill, and Roger |
But there was another element lurking just below
the surface. Arthur had developed
an issue with alcohol over the years, perhaps not too surprising as he continually socialize with Boston's elite. My father (Jack) and Archie’s relationship
became further strained as a result of Arthur’s drinking. The issue must have been a challenge for
the whole family. During the 1930s
when Arthur’s two oldest boys, Archie and Jack, were in high school/college, it
reached a peak. Many a late
evening, the Duffey household would receive a call from the police or a Boston
tavern owner demanding someone retrieve their father. My dad usually won the honors. He did not understand why, and it did not sit
well with him because he thought Archie, as the oldest son, should have
inherited the opportunity. This
matter continued to be an embarrassment to the family.
Then World War II broke out. By 1942 the household was missing most of the kids, except for Roger, who was a member of ROTC while attending Harvard. The older boys, Archie, Jack, and Bill, had
joined the service and headed for various theaters of war, and daughter, Helen, was about to be married.
One Father’s Day during WW-II, probably 1944 or '45,
the headline article on the Boston Post’s sports page featured a drawing of the
Duffey sons in uniform with their famous father, sketched by the Post’s Bob
Coyne (1898-1976).
In 1949, Arthur retired from the Post after 41 years of sports writing and editing.
As people began to receive news bulletins from radio, there was no
longer need to wait on Washington Street for the latest headlines. During the 1940s the Post was in
serious readership decline and would eventually go out of business in October 1956.
------------
In the summer of 1948, Dad received an assignment to Greenville Air Force Base, so our family set off to South Carolina. But within a year we returned to Boston because my father, then USAF Lt Col Jack Duffey, was suddenly reassigned to Naha, Okinawa in early 1949. Arthur helped my mother and us two boys find a new rental home. My mother, Louise, was most appreciative of his support. At the time, Bob and I (Jack, Jr.) were in first and second grade respectively. Mom would take us to visit the Duffey grandparents' home on Sunday mornings after mass.
Everything seemed old. The two-story house was dark brown and somewhat
past prime. There were always Boston Post and Globe newspapers around the home, especially on the floor. I especially remember their large, circa
1920s RCA Victrola Record Player, with its 78-rpm vinyl records. It was something else. We had to wind it up with a large hand
crank on the right side to get it to run, and then it only seemed to run for
several minutes, just long enough to play one record. The records featured marching bands from
the 1920s and 30s. Bob and I liked
to go into the room and play the magnificent machine. It was located in its own, dark, heavily
draped room. It too seemed like a
cave to us.
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| Arthur & Helen Duffey, 1950 |
We would view some of his running medals in one
of the darkened rooms. At the
time, I had no idea that he had been a famous athlete. One afternoon we all went out on their
upstairs porch and Mom took this photo of Bumpa and Grammy. It would be hard to associate this Arthur with the sprinter of 1902. This was the last time we would ever see Grammy or Bumpa.
In 1953 our family was now living in the
Washington D.C. area. One evening we
received a call from Orvis Road that Helen had just passed away. It was one of the few times I ever saw my father in tears. I can still recall the intriguing cut-out map book (one country per page) that Grammy gave me on Christmas 1949. How could she have known me so well? I was grateful for that special gift, which would spur my life-long interest in geography.
Two years later another call came that Arthur had died of a fatal heart attack while at Boston’s Deaconess Hospital. The date was 23 January 1955; he was 75 years old. Following a high mass at St Agnes Catholic Church of Arlington, he was buried at the Mt Pleasant Cemetery alongside his wife, Helen, in plot Z-250.
Two years later another call came that Arthur had died of a fatal heart attack while at Boston’s Deaconess Hospital. The date was 23 January 1955; he was 75 years old. Following a high mass at St Agnes Catholic Church of Arlington, he was buried at the Mt Pleasant Cemetery alongside his wife, Helen, in plot Z-250.
As the only sibling still living in the Boston area, Arthur's only daughter, Helen Shea, handled the estate matters. Unfortunately, high expense required her to sell off many of Arthur and Helen's possessions. But she managed to keep a few medals in the family to remind Arthur's descendants about his achievements. Thankfully none of his track medals were ever confiscated in the black days of 1905-06.
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| Washington Times, 18 October 1903 (click to enlarge) |
About 55 years after his death and over 110
years since his track career ended, Arthur’s legacy took a turn for the better.
Due in part to the efforts of one
of his grandsons, Bill, Jr., Arthur’s accomplishments were honored at the USA
Track and Field Hall of Fame induction held in Daytona Beach, Florida in
December 2012.
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| Four of Arthur's grandchildren brave the Blizzard of 2015 |
Arthur’s campaign to illuminate the
amateur-professional athlete issue of the early 1900s had paved the way for
finally getting it right.
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