John Ernest Duke

John Duke is an entrepreneur who owns Hydroecology North America, Inc. He is the principal floodplain analyst and is a subcontractor for small to mid-sized engineering and ecology firms in 11 states so far. If you have ever looked at a FEMA floodplain map, John may have helped create it. His work also includes modeling the restoration of wetlands for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ wetland mitigation banks under the direction of the Clean Water Act.

He has no children of his own but married the widow, Marianne Lecesne, who did. Seven, in fact, including one adopted. He says that his wife is the hardest working person he has ever known. She holds down a teaching career as a high-school calculus teacher and is the one who always mows the lawn, with an electric mower, of course. Except for two who come home from college at Christmas, they are now empty nesters.

John often returns to Ely, Minnesota, especially in the winter time, to walk, sleep, and fish on the ice along the Canadian border.

You can contact him at:

jd@hydroecology.org

linkedin.com/in/john-e-duke-60bab548