Former county jailer had deep Edina roots

Richard Duggan, a descendant of one of Edina's earliest families and longtime Hennepin County jailer, died Saturday at the age of 88.

Duggan loved to load his five children in a van and drive around Edina in the 1950s. He knew it well and took his young family to visit the farm where he was raised just west of Hwy. 100 near 70th Street.

"The Duggans were one of the first families of Edina," said Magna, his wife of 63 years.

The Irish family homesteaded the land in 1854, raised wheat on more than 200 acres and later downsized the farm to a dairy that operated until the 1940s. Housing replaced it in the 1950s, but a four-block stretch -- Duggan's Plaza -- still bears the family name.

Duggan left the farm to attend St. John's University briefly, then joined the Navy during World War II. After an honorable discharge, he met Magna and married in 1947.

He joined the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office in 1949. For the next 27 years he served as a deputy sheriff, eventually reaching the rank of captain. Most of that time he was in charge of the county and city jail.

His daughter Sheila said he was a witty man who loved one-liners and didn't discuss work much at home.

The Sheriff's Office was especially busy in the late 1960s and early '70s, said Magna, when racial unrest and anti-war protests brought many into the jail.

"It was a huge responsibility," she said.

Duggan raised his family in a south Minneapolis house where he lived for almost 50 years before moving to Richfield in 2001.

Duggan was known as a hard worker, Magna said, and he became an avid woodworker after he retired in 1977.

Friends, neighbors and relatives received all types of finely crafted furniture, she said. Grandchildren benefited from homemade doll houses, wooden trains and cars, and other toys, his daughter said.

In addition to Sheila, surviving children include Dick, Joe, Steve and Susan; eight grandchildren; one great-grandchild, and a sister, Kathleen Duggan.

Services will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at Christ the King Catholic Church, 5029 Zenith Av. S., with visitation one hour prior. Interment will be at Fort Snelling National Cemetery.