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MARQUETTE, MI – Dr. Connie Hamm Duncanson passed away peacefully on November 11, 2026, her 86th birthday, following a months-long battle with cancer. She spent her final days at her home overlooking the Chocolay River with her sons, Roy and Calder, by her side.
Connie was born November 11, 1940, in Wagner, South Dakota, in a small hospital located above the downtown post office. Her mother had been a school teacher and her father was a farmer, and she and her sister spent their early years on the family farm outside of town. She graduated as valedictorian of Wagner High School in 1958, and that fall began her studies at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion. Back in Wagner during her first summer break, Connie was set up to meet a friend of a friend, Harlyn Hamm. He memorably showed up to meet her in a shirt and tie at the public pool, where she was in her swimwear working as a lifeguard. They married in 1960 when she was 19 on the campus of the University of South Dakota.
Connie adapted her studies and relocated to join her husband who had taken a job in the Sioux Falls area. During this time she attended two separate universities (Augustana University and the University of Sioux Falls) both only part time to intentionally circumvent both schools' religious studies requirements for full-time students, often finding refuge in an open biology lab during mandatory chapel
attendance. In 1962, she completed her undergraduate degree at Southern Illinois University (SIU), finishing 3rd in a class of over 2,000 students and graduating summa cum laude with a B.A. in Psychology. She continued at SIU, earning her M.A. in Psychology (1965) and her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology (1967).
In 1967 Connie spent a year teaching at the Indianapolis campus of Indiana University, which is where her first son, Roy, was born. Harlyn had also earned his Ph.D. in Psychology from SIU, and in 1968 they moved to Marquette, Michigan, to take teaching positions at Northern Michigan University (NMU), joining its newly created psychology department. In the summer of 1969, they moved into a home in Chocolay Township, where she lived for the rest of her life.
At a time when women held fewer than 10% of university science professorships,Connie entered a tenure-track faculty position in psychology, while also balancing a family and her role as primary homemaker. She went on to build a resilient 27-year academic career at NMU, first as an assistant professor, advancing to associate professor in 1973, and full professor in 1984.
Early in Connie's tenure at NMU, while planning for her second child, she requested maternity leave and was met with institutional resistance and threats of replacement. She fought back by whistleblowing to the administration, hiring legal counsel, and pointing out a number of inequities she faced, including differences in salary, job title, faculty voting privileges, and respect. Despite her doctorate, she had often been referred to as "Mrs." instead of "Dr." by university officials. The maternity leave fight sparked her activism and led to her eventual chairmanship of the university's Subcommittee on Equality for Women in Academe, which created more equitable university policies and directly resulted in the university revising its maternity leave policy, making it available to all female faculty and staff without pre-approval hurdles.
Her second son, Calder, was born in 1977.
During her years at NMU, Connie built key programs within the Psychology Department. She was instrumental in installing a Head Start classroom for children in the psychology department to assist in child psychology and early education studies, and she was central to establishing the university's child psychology curriculum, teaching and developing numerous classes in the department. She was a true pioneer on campus, building NMU's human sexuality and gender courses from scratch, at a time when these subjects were still establishing their place in psychology curricula and remained historically shrouded in taboo. Her forward-thinking approach brought boundary-pushing coursework to a regional university years ahead of its time.
Connie also had an extensive history of university service and served as chairman, co-chair, or president for multiple terms across several major committees, including Committee W (an American Association of University Professors-backed group dedicated to addressing gender equity, salaries, and the status of women in academia), the School of Education Advisory Committee, the Faculty Grant Committee, the Academic Advising and Proficiency Committee, the Educational Advisory Council, and the local chapter of Phi Kappa Phi, which she helped install.
Her career was capped by receiving the prestigious Michigan Legislature-backed Teaching Excellence Award in 1991 (one of only four NMU faculty selected), two nominations for Advisor of the Year (1987, 1992), and being named Professor Emeritus upon her retirement in 1995.
Outside of academia, Connie was an avid reader with a large home library featuring thousands of books, with a particular fondness for science fiction and cookbooks. She enjoyed bargain hunting at local garage sales; growing vegetables in her greenhouse built from discarded NMU dormitory windows; swimming in her pool during the short Upper Peninsula summers; attending yoga classes; participating in her monthly book club; and taking on home improvement projects with her trusted handyman. She was also a collector of kaleidoscopes, pop-up books, and kitchen gadgets. A lifelong secular humanist, she relished the opportunity to counter door-to-door evangelists with her own unapologetic defense of scientific inquiry, rationalism, skepticism, and humanist beliefs.
Connie was preceded in death by her husband, Harlyn; her parents, Russell and Alice Duncanson; and her brother-in-law, Norman Andersh. She is survived by her sons, Roy Hamm of Los Angeles, California, and Calder Duncanson of San Francisco, California; her sister, Deanna Andersh of Heron Lake, Minnesota; and a number of nieces, nephews, and cousins.
No formal services will be held at this time. An informal graveside interment will take place in the summer of 2027, with details to be announced at a later date. Connie's family would like to thank Marquette Home Care, particularly her aides Tina and Elisabeth, for their support over the last few years of her journey.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to The Center for Inquiry, The American Civil Liberties Union, or Lake Superior Life Care and Hospice.
Fassbender Hansen Funeral and Cremation Services is serving the family, where condolences may be expressed online at fassbenderswansonhansen.com