Duane Lund was born in Brainerd, Minnesota.  He is the only
  child born in the family of Richard and Ruth Lund.  His father, Richard, was a
  machinist at the Burlington Northern Railroad shops at Brainerd and his mother,
  Ruth, was a country school teacher.  Both sets of Duane's grandparents came
from  Sweden.  His father's father was a sailor on a clipper ship that sailed
into New  York from Sweden and had dry docked for a layover period.  His
grandfather  decided to visit his sister in Brainerd and never went back to New
York to  collect his wages or return to his ship.  He met his future wife in
Brainerd and  went to work for the Burlington Northern Railroad Company in
Brainerd as a  blacksmith.  His mother's parents had been farming in Upsala,
Minnesota and also  moved to the Brainerd area where Ruth's father also got a
job working for  Burlington Northern Railroad.


 




Duane Lund was a good student and was put on a fast track in
the  elementary school where he was given something called a "double promotion"
which  allowed him to graduate from high school at the young age of 16.  He was
offered  scholarships from both Hamline University and Macalester College and
chose  Macalester College he got $50 more on his scholarship.  He made that
choice even  though his girlfriend at the time chose Hamline
University.


 




Duane's father was an avid hunter and fisherman and Duane
spent  much of his time as a youth hunting and fishing with his father in the
Brainerd  Lakes area.