Memorial Service for Duke Staff and Faculty on Nov. 15

A service of remembrance in Duke University Chapel will reflect on the lives and contributions of employees who passed away this year

People speaking at a podium.
Candles honoring faculty and staff who have died are lit during the 2022 service of remembrance at the Duke University Chapel Hill. (Photo by Jack Frederick)

The Duke University Chapel and Duke University Hospital Bereavement Services will host the annual service of remembrance on Nov. 15 to honor the lives of staff and faculty who have passed away since last October.

Held at the Duke University Chapel at 3 p.m., the service will remember Duke employees through reflection, candle lighting, poetry and music. The names of the employees will be read at the service, and the Duke University Chapel bell will ring once for each name read.

The 30-minute service is an opportunity for the campus community to grieve together while also recognizing and celebrating the contributions employees during their time at Duke.

“This is our way of acknowledging their contributions and honoring them,” said Artie Hendricks, a senior clinical administrative chaplain at the Duke University Hospital. “It’s a small way to honor the folks who worked here. Each one of the folks we name has made some contribution, gave something, invested something here at Duke as part of their lives.”

The service is part of Grief Awareness Week, which aims to increase awareness of issues around grief and loss in the workplace and to promote strategies for healthy grieving. Throughout the week of Nov. 13, Duke University Hospital Bereavement Services will share grief resources and information at tables in front of hospital cafeterias.

“It’s an attempt to normalize grief and loss because we all experience that each and every day in some way or another,” Hendricks said. “It’s not just losing somebody you love. It can be a colleague you’ve really enjoyed working with moves on to another place or the daily losses experienced that we don’t think about as losses.”

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