Margaret Duffy, 94; Red Cross Executive

Margaret Gooch Duffy, 94, a champion of volunteerism who served with the American Red Cross for more than six decades, died Dec. 23 of a stroke at Alive Hospice in Nashville, Tenn. She was a former Arlington resident.

Mrs. Duffy, known as "Maggie," was born in Madison, Tenn., and grew up in Brentwood, Tenn. Her passion for volunteerism developed at an early age when she emulated her mother and grandmother by knitting washcloths for soldiers wounded in World War I. She was a student at Ward Belmont Junior College (now Belmont University), Vanderbilt University and the University of Tennessee School of Social Work.

During the Depression, she was a social worker in Tennessee, with a caseload of some 500 clients. During a devastating flood on the Cumberland River, she was lent to the American Red Cross as a caseworker because many of her clients lived in the flooded area. She soon joined the Red Cross as director of the Home Services Department, serving in that position during the early years of World War II.

In September 1943, she was appointed assistant field director for military welfare overseas and traveled on a troop ship to the Pacific theater with 15,000 GIs. During the next few years she served in Australia, the Philippines, Japan and Korea.

From 1947 to 1949, she was part of a seven-person team assigned to the health and welfare section of the supreme commander of the Allied powers in Tokyo, assisting the Japanese and Korean Red Cross Societies to develop community health programs for the people of those war-torn nations.

"My special assignment was that of introducing volunteerism, for which there was no word at that time in the Japanese language," she recalled years later in a publication called Tennessee Volunteer Heroes. "So the Society and the Health and Welfare sector made a new one -- hoshidan, meaning 'service groups.' "

During the Korean conflict, she was the Tokyo area field director. In addition to her regular duties, she developed an organization of 2,000 volunteers to assist in the care of the thousands of wounded soldiers en route to the United States through Tokyo as well as to attend to the needs of any family members based in Japan. Her plan became the model for Red Cross volunteer programs at all overseas military installations.

Mrs. Duffy returned to the United States in 1952 and became field director at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. From 1954 to 1958, she served at European America Red Cross headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, where she expanded volunteer efforts with U.S. military dependents at installations in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

In 1958, she became executive director of volunteers in the eastern area, based in Alexandria. She soon moved to national headquarters as director of the office of volunteer personnel.

She retired in 1977 but continued as a Red Cross consultant. She also served as a volunteer liaison with the Japanese embassy to encourage Japanese citizens living in the United States to volunteer with the Red Cross.

In 1991, Mrs. Duffy moved to Nashville, where she served on the board of directors of the local Red Cross chapter. That year the emperor of Japan conferred on her the Order of the Precious Crown, Butterfly, for "the contributions in promoting volunteerism in Japan and in strengthening the friendship between the people of Japan and the United States through activities of the American Red Cross."

Mrs. Duffy's husband, Eugene Barstow Duffy, died in 1974.

Survivors include a stepdaughter, Margaret D. Beyersdorfer of Bethesda; three grandchildren; and two great-granddaughters.