Mary D. B. T. Semans

The granddaughter of Benjamin N. Duke and grand-niece of James B. Duke, Mrs. Semans was an Endowment Trustee for 55 years. She was the first woman to chair its Board of Trustees, serving in the role from 1982-2001. She was the daughter of Mary Duke Biddle and Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle Jr. A 1968 article in the Sunday Winston-Salem Journal and Sentinel noted that she and Doris Duke were cousins, and while Mrs. Semans was “probably one of the wealthiest women in the state … no one would know it from dealing with her. She is modest, unassuming, friendly and gracious.” She possessed a keen intellect, enrolling in the Woman’s College at Duke University at age 15. She graduated in 1939. After her first husband, Duke Hospital surgeon Josiah Trent, died of cancer, the young widow and mother of four ran for and won a seat on Durham City Council, becoming the first woman elected to the body in 1951. She later married surgeon James H. Semans and together they helped lead the establishment of the N.C. School of the Arts, the country’s first state-supported conservatory for the arts. She also played a key role in establishing what is now the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Mrs. Semans served as a Trustee for numerous institutions, including Duke University and the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation. She launched the first Endowment-wide program, the Children and Families Initiative, and established the Benjamin N. Duke Scholarship to help Duke University attract student leaders from the Carolinas. She remains a revered figure at the Endowment; inside its headquarters in Charlotte, the main conference center serving grantees and the community is named in her honor. Mrs. Semans received the Duke University Medal for Distinguished Meritorious Service; the National Brotherhood Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews; and the John Tyler Caldwell Award for the Humanities. She was a 2009 inductee in the North Carolina Women’s Hall of Fame. She died in 2012 at 91.