May 10, 1942 – April 22, 2021
DURHAM, N.C. - After giving it all he had for four years, Dr. Duane A. Dreyer, 78, was finally able to round his challenging third base and slide into home plate on April 22, 2021. His wife, Marti, was by his side at home when he passed.
A visitation is planned and details of it, as well as plans for a celebration of his life, may be found in an expanded obituary on the Donaldson Funeral Home, Pittsboro, N.C., website at https://www.donaldsonfunerals.com/listings .
Dr. Dreyer was born in Ypsilanti, Michigan, on May 10, 1942, the son of V. Dean and Virginia Jones Dreyer. Educated in the public schools in Ann Arbor, Minneapolis, and Findlay, Ohio, he graduated from Findlay Senior High School in 1960. He attended Ohio Northern University, and graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1965 with a B.S. in Pharmacy. After serving 1967–1969 as Senior Assistant Pharmacist in the United States Public Health Service, Division of Indian Health in Lame Deer, Montana, he was awarded his Ph.D degree in Pharmacology in 1971 from the University of Pittsburgh. Duane’s academic appointments included positions in the Dept. of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh; the Dental Research Center, UNC-Chapel Hill; the Divisions of Neurosurgery and Dept. of Physiology, Duke University Medical Center; the Dept. of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, School of Dentistry; and the Dept. of Physiology, School of Medicine, UNC-Chapel Hill. While at UNC, he received a five-year Research Career Program Development Award from the National Institute of Dental Research; the Richard F. Hunt Award for Excellence in Teaching Award from the School of Dentistry; and the Outstanding Faculty Award, Medical Education Development Program. In semi-retirement he also taught at Durham Technical Community College, Meredith College, Watts School of Nursing, and Miller-Motte College which honored him with its first emeritus status.
Left to miss him dearly are his wife and high school sweetheart, Marti Miller Dreyer, his son and daughter-in-law, Scott and Jennifer Russ Dreyer and their son, Russ. A daughter and her son are estranged. He is also survived by sisters, Joyce Baughman, Carol Kendall, and Deborah Hinton.