(March 2, 2021) WASHINGTON, D.C.—The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) mourns the passing of Joseph Duffey, who died on Thursday, February 25, in Washington, D.C. From October 1977 through December 1981, Duffey served as chairman of NEH. Appointed by President Jimmy Carter, he led the agency through four extraordinary years, and decades afterward could be spotted in the crowd at the Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities and other NEH public events. Before becoming chairman, Duffey served as the Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs. He had been a chief administrative officer and spokesman for the American Association of University Professors and a professor at Yale Divinity School and Hartford Seminary. In 1970, he had run, in Connecticut, as an antiwar candidate for the U.S. Senate.