Please remember in your prayers Bridget Duoos. She was the chair of the Department of Health and Human Performance and a St. Thomas professor since 1995. She died Tuesday after a short battle with cancer.
As recently as two months ago Duoos was teaching in the classroom, mentoring her research students and advising many more, all while chairing a successful and growing department. "We have lost an excellent colleague, a generous friend and an inspiring role model," said Terence Langan, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
Bridget began working at St. Thomas in 1995 when she joined what was then the Department of Physical Education. During her more than 20-year tenure, she worked with her colleagues to build the department into today's Department of Health and Human Performance, with hundreds of students majoring in exercise science, health promotion, public health studies, and physical and health education for teaching candidates.
She particularly enjoyed getting students involved in research. According to Langan, "Health and human performance is one of our more successful departments in terms of student research. This is due in large part to the curriculum that Bridget and her colleagues built, including the research methods course that she so loved to teach."
Since 2009, her professional accomplishments included a book, more than a dozen peer-reviewed journal articles, more than two dozen peer-reviewed conference presentations and nearly five dozen student research presentations. Her professional colleagues honored her with a statewide award and a regional award during that same time period in recognition of her many contributions to the discipline.
"I know that all of us are dedicated to our students or else we wouldn’t be here. But somehow Bridget seemed to take that dedication to another level (or two or three)," said Langan. "She was so proud of her students and her department."
A memorial service took place at 2 p.m. Friday, June 24, at Cambridge Lutheran Church, 621 Old North Main St. in Cambridge. Visitation was one hour prior to services at the church.
Read her obituary online.
