True Blue Duke Roots

For some families, contributions to Duke’s workforce span generations

This story is part of Working@Duke's celebration of Duke's Centennial year. Working@Duke is highlighting historical workforce issues and showcasing employees in a special series through 2024.

In 2022, after 10 years in Boston, Elizabeth Van Itallie was ready for a change. That made the opportunity to join the Duke Human Vaccine Institute as a Bioinformatician something she couldn’t pass up.

For Elizabeth, 35, Duke represented something that was both new and deeply familiar.
In 1958, her grandfather, William Evans Scott, joined Duke’s History Department faculty, remaining until 1993. He and his wife Marian, raised four children – including Elizabeth’s mother, Jane – in a house in Trinity Park.

Growing up in New Jersey, Elizabeth visited her grandparents in Durham often, creating childhood memories of walking loops around East Campus and feeding ducks at Sarah P. Duke Gardens.

Elizabeth Van Itallie
Elizabeth Van Itallie

“I always felt a connection to Duke and Durham and had a sense of it being a really interesting place,” Elizabeth said.

Elizabeth’s grandfather died in 1997 and her grandmother passed away in 2011, leaving her with few links to Durham when she moved to the city in 2022. But her generational bonds to the community helped her feel rooted.

“I came here at a time when I needed a new anchor,” Elizabeth said. “I’m grateful to find myself in a place where I had a connection and that very quickly felt like home.”

During its first century, Duke has built a reputation as a world-class institution for teaching, research and patient care on the strength of its creative and dedicated staff and faculty. Now employing about 47,132 people, it’s not uncommon to find families whose contributions to Duke’s workforce span multiple generations.

Meet some colleagues whose families intertwine with Duke’s story.

Elizabeth Van Itallie, third from left, on a visit to Duke during the 1990s to see her grandfather, former Duke History Department Professor William Evans Scott, far left. Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Van Itallie.

Four Generations

As an Orange High School senior in 1985, Phyllis Holt drove from Hillsborough to Durham each afternoon to work part-time as a clerk in the billing department of Duke’s Private Diagnostic Clinic.

After graduation, she transitioned to full-time, beginning a Duke career that continues to this day.

“Duke had great benefits and a family environment,” said Phyllis, now a Duke Health Technology Solutions (DHTS) Security Analyst.

Her family’s connection to Duke spans four generations.

Phyllis’ grandmother, Nancy Dillard, joined Duke University’s financial office in 1964. Phyllis remembers, as a child, occasionally accompanying her grandmother to work on the Allen Building’s third floor, clacking away on an adding machine, trying to tally checks like her grandmother.

“I never got the same total twice,” Phyllis said.

Two years after Phyllis joined Duke’s staff, her mother, Louise Dillard, began a 29-year career as a full-time staff assistant in a handful of medical departments. In addition to having several aunts work at Duke, Phyllis’ sister, Emily, and brother, Linwood, landed at Duke, too. Briefly, all three siblings worked for DHTS in the same Research Triangle Park office.

Louise Dillard, third from left, is surrounded by family members during her 2016 retirement celebration. Among fellow Duke employees pictured are daughter Emily Plummer, far left, daughter Phyllis Holt, second from left, granddaughter Haley Holt, second from right, and son Linwood Dillard, far right. Photo courtesy of Phyllis Holt.
Louise Dillard, third from left, is surrounded by family members during her 2016 retirement celebration. Among fellow Duke employees pictured are daughter Emily Plummer, far left, daughter Phyllis Holt, second from left, granddaughter Haley Holt, second from right, and son Linwood Dillard, far right. Photo courtesy of Phyllis Holt.

In 2020, Phyllis’ daughter Haley, now a Patient Account Associate at the Patient Revenue Management Organization, started her Duke career.

“We’ve been blessed,” Phyllis said. “I’m very thankful because Duke has helped our family through a lot.”

Grandmother, Mother, Daughter

Bailey Thompson first worked at Duke as an 18-year-old Certified Nursing Assistant in the Duke University Hospital Birthing Center. Later, she became a Float Pool Clinical Nurse and is using the Employee Tuition Assistance Program to pursue a bachelor’s degree in nursing.

Duke is where Bailey is charting her future and connecting with her past.

“I meet people all the time who say they worked with my mom or my grandmother,” she said. “It definitely makes me feel like I’m part of a family here.”

Bailey’s grandmother, Barbara Turner, was a nurse in the Birthing Center for just shy of 30 years before retiring in 2008. Bailey’s mother, Heather Turner, joined the Duke staff in 1997, eventually becoming a nurse in the Birthing Center and working alongside Barbara – her mother – for several years.

“I saw what my mom did and how she was so happy at Duke,” Heather said. “I wanted to help people and take care of patients like she did.”

As a kid, Bailey was a regular visitor to the Birthing Center’s nurses’ station, occasionally being dropped off by her grandmother before her night shift and driven home by her mother after her day shift ended. Later, Bailey and her mother were coworkers on the same unit for around two years. Bailey’s Float Pool duties now have her circulating between Duke University Hospital and Duke Regional Hospital.

Heather Turner, left, spent nearly two years working alongside daughter and fellow Duke nurse Bailey Thompson, right. Photo courtesy of Heather Turner.

“I’m proud that my mom and grandmother worked here,” Bailey said. “I’m proud to be part of Duke.”

Family Harmony

Larry Dunkins and his mother, Dorothy Dunkins, have worked alongside each other for nearly two decades. Photo by Travis Stanley.

When asked how many of his family members have worked in Facilities Management’s Sanitation & Recycling Department, Senior Sanitation Equipment Operator Larry Dunkins can quickly rattle off a dozen or so names.

His mom, Dorothy Dunkins, has been a Senior Recycler for more than 25 years. His father, George O’Neal, retired as a Lead Recycler years ago.

Larry has so many siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins and other relatives who have passed through the department, the iron ‘D’ on their uniforms could stand as much for Dunkins as it does Duke.

“I think we wanted to come to a place where we could find camaraderie and be around family,” said Larry, who won a Duke Presidential Award in 2022 for outstanding service. “Working with family makes things a lot smoother. You enjoy coming to work.”

Larry joined Duke’s staff 21 years ago, following in his mother’s footsteps. She followed her aunts, Recyclers Mary Royster and Sarah Hall, to Duke. Dorothy has worked with her aunts since they were laborers on tobacco fields back home in Granville County.

“We’ve been working together all our lives,” Dorothy said. “When we found better opportunities, we tried to bring the others on board.”

Through the years, as members of the Dunkins family found spots with Duke, the benefits, the energy of campus and the fun of sharing Duke as a workplace has led them to stay.

“Our job is a small part of Duke, but a very important part of Duke,” Dorothy said. “And Duke has been important to our family.”

George O'Neal

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