Corbett names Bucks County man secretary of aging

For six years, until her death in 1995, Brian Duke was his mother's caretaker as Alzheimer's disease overtook her.

That draining experience, Duke says, helped shift the former hospital administrator's career focus to one of advocacy for senior citizens and those who care for them.

That career reached an apex Thursday when Gov. Corbett named the Bucks County resident to be Pennsylvania's next secretary of aging.

Duke, 53, of Washington Crossing, has served since 2007 as director of the Bucks County Area Agency on Aging. "I'm looking forward to serving the older persons of Pennsylvania," he said.

In announcing his choice, Corbett said Duke's "knowledge, experience, and compassion will be a tremendous benefit to Pennsylvania."

Pennsylvania has the nation's third-highest percentage of elderly residents as well as a budget crisis, making Duke's job important and difficult.

"We face the challenge of both the growing [elderly] population and also the reality of the resources we have," he said. "We seek to continue to engage the many experts in the aging network to figure out innovative ways to help those older persons."

In Bucks County, where he managed 58 employees and a $12 million budget, Duke was skilled at finding creative solutions, County Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia said.

"He was very professional and totally nonpolitical," said Marseglia, a Democrat. "If you called him about a problem, he didn't just say, 'I don't know what we're going to do.' He was solution-minded. He understood that there were ways to change the system to make it work."

Among those who saw Duke's work was Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley, until recently a Bucks County commissioner.

"I can understand why the lieutenant governor might have suggested his name for that spot," Republican County Commissioner Charles Martin said of Duke. "He's been a knowledgeable advocate with a real sincere interest in helping the elderly."

In Harrisburg, Duke will oversee a staff of about 90 employees whose $742 million budget draws from federal funds, lottery proceeds, and tobacco-settlement money.

Duke, who holds advanced degrees in bioethics and health-services administration, has lived in Bucks County most of his life.

From 1981 through 1998, he held administrative posts at several area hospitals.

But the years of caring for his mother, he said, "opened my eyes that things had to change for older persons and their caregivers."

He volunteered with Children of Aging Parents, a nonprofit advocacy group for family caregivers. He directed geriatric-program initiatives for the University of Pennsylvania Health System's Institute on Aging, worked as a consultant, and was executive director of the New Jersey Foundation for Aging before Bucks County hired him.

"Many people in our field have been impassioned by their personal experiences," he said. "That's what really got me going."