Dr. J. Thomas Duncan Jr.

On June 13, 2026, the Lowcountry lost a brilliant doctor, mentor, teacher, and friend in the passing of J. Thomas Duncan, Jr, MD., born April 17, 1943, in Monroe, North Carolina to JT Duncan, DDS, and Theo Reed Duncan. Educated in Lancaster County schools, he graduated at the age of sixteen and entered Emory University as a Stipe Scholar. He attended the University of South Carolina, receiving his MD degree at the Medical College of South Carolina in Charleston, SC. He continued his extensive medical training with a Medical Internship at the Medical College of Georgia and completed his first year Medical Residency in 1971 In Augusta. He moved back to Charleston as a Teacher Fellow in Hematology at the Medical University of South Carolina and subsequently a Teaching Fellow in Cardiology under his mentor, Dr. Peter Gazes.

Dr. Duncan, to further his thirst for knowledge, became a Teaching Fellow of Cardiology at Guy’s Hospital in London, England. At Guy’s, he had clinical responsibilities for cardiac catheterization, including coronary arteriography and cardiac pacemaker implantation. In 1974, he returned to MUSC with an academic appointment as an Associate of Medicine (Cardiology) where he implanted the first pacemaker as a Cardiologist in South Carolina.

In 1975, his cousins, Dr. William Duke and Charlie Duke (Astronaut), encouraged him to return to Lancaster, his hometown, as a Cardiologist at Elliot White Memorial Hospital where he practiced for four years. Eager to get back into the cath lab, he moved again to Charleston to Trident Regional Hospital, where he partnered with L.K. Howard, MD, forming Cardiology Consultants, PA, of Charleston. Tommy, as he liked to be called, described the most cherished years of his medical career as the last seven when he and his wife, Carroll, opened his solo practice of Cardiology. Moving from the Trident Regional Hospital area to an 1850’s historical cottage in Summerville, he was determined to present a welcoming home-like environment where patients could feel safe and discuss not only their cardiovascular issues but other medical, psychological and spiritual concerns they were experiencing. Dr. Duncan was known for his extraordinary diagnostic skills and for his compassion for his patients and their families.

Dr. Duncan was most proud of his Golden Apple Award as the Outstanding Resident voted by the senior class in 1971 while at the Medical College of Georgia. He also received the Patients Top Choice Award from US News and World Report. He was an American College of Cardiology Fellow, a designation awarded for expertise in the treatment of cardiovascular disease.

Not only was he a teacher and a physician mentor, he cherished teaching his children life lessons, sometimes silently but always by example. He felt they all needed to learn to drive a stick shift and to sail. Sailing, Tommy told them, taught strategy, physics, and confidence. Tommy most enjoyed being with his grandchildren and golfing with his buddies, having made two holes-in-one. Quite the gourmet chef, Tommy enjoyed the times he and Carroll shared preparing his creations. Other activities he enjoyed were playing bridge, scuba diving, and especially solving old Sunday New York Times crossword puzzles, calling that his daily mental acuity test. Tommy often shared with Carroll, the love of his life, his philosophy, that life is terrific now, but “Grow Old Along with Me! The Best is Yet to Be.”.

He was predeceased by his father, Jackson T Duncan, DDS, his mother, Theo Reed Duncan, and by his sister Jane Elizabeth Duncan Smith. Surviving Dr. Duncan, in addition to his wife of 47 years, Carroll Sheppard Duncan, are his beloved children, Andrea Elizabeth Duncan, Seattle, WA., Jena Carroll Walldorf (Chad), Sullivans’ Island, Ian Thomas Duncan, (Daniele) Mt. Pleasant, John Gabriel Purser, Summerville. He also leaves behind his cherished grandchildren, Katherine Rion Walldorf, Julian Thomas Duncan, Evelyn Anson Walldorf, William Digges Walldorf and Henry Chamberlain Duncan; his beloved in-laws, Jule Garreth Smith of Isle of Palms, South Carolina, Walter O Sheppard, III of Louisville, Georgia, Barbara Sheppard Andrews (Richard "Dickie") of Holden Beach, NC and Lucinda (Cindy) Sheppard of Holden Beach, NC, along with multiple nieces, nephews, grandnieces, and grandnephews.

The Celebration of Life will be held on Sunday, June 28, 2026, 4-7 pm at the Summerville Country Club, 400 Country Club Blvd., Summerville, SC. The family will hold a private interment at Mepkin Abbey.

Memorials may be made to Samaritans Purse, St. Paul's Anglican Church,  316 W. Carolina Ave. Summerville, SC 29483, or a charity of one's choice.

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