Kenneth Duane Lyders

Duane Lyders died peacefully of Parkinson’s disease in Carmel, CA on August 13 with family by his side. He will be remembered as a man of many talents with a keen intellect, a dry sense of humor, and a deep respect for logic.

Born in Minot, North Dakota, Duane moved with his first wife Janet to Ventura in 1962 to work as a prosecuting attorney for Ventura County. He retired in 1986 after serving many years as the city attorney of Oxnard. The first member of his family to attend college, he graduated from the University of Southern California and went on to earn a JD from UC Berkeley School of Law in 1959 after serving in the US Navy.

Duane was a talented musician with perfect pitch who came from a musical family. He majored in music at USC and played trumpet in the marching band. He was an accomplished pianist, sang Handel’s Messiah during the holidays, and enjoyed playing the recorder, especially while camping. He taught folk dancing on the Ventura Promenade and at the Unitarian Church. He was a gourmet cook, known for his homemade sourdough bread and traditional Norwegian fare such as lefse and stike.

Duane loved traveling and the outdoors. Sailing solo from Hawaii to Oxnard, he was stranded in the doldrums for a of couple weeks, reporting afterwards that he had ample time to reflect on the meaning of life during his solitude.

In his later years he and his second wife Karin took up ballroom dancing, and they custom designed their home in Santa Paula to include a dance floor. He stayed active most of his life, playing tennis well into his 80s. Duane worked hard and thought for himself. He read widely yet was usually a man of few words.

Duane was predeceased by parents Kenneth and Mabel, younger brother Ronald and younger sister Marilyn Elizabeth. He is survived by his wife Karin, his brother Richard, his sister Joanna, his daughters Karen, Greta and Kirsten, his stepson Rob, and his grandchildren Taylor, Quinten, Milo, Sasha, Gillian, Sonia, Rhianna and Matthew.

Family will have a private celebration of Duane’s life. His daughters are especially grateful to Edna and Linda for their kind and loving care during the last 4 years of their father’s life.