Meet Mr. Bain

The caretaker of Duke Park

You may not know Don Bain but you’ve probably waved to him countless times. He walks through Duke Park almost every day, usually wearing a light jacket and baseball cap. He drives around the loop in his silver Ford Explorer. He’s not looking for conversation as he makes his rounds but waves freely to all passers by. He is the caretaker of Duke Park.
     Don Bain has lived in the park for nearly 30 years. His house is tucked away in the northwest corner, easy to miss. A modest, 4-1/2 room structure which he shares with his wife Judy, it is obscured by fences, pickup trucks and the equipment sheds of the Urban Forestry Rangers. It was built in 1934 (along with the pool and bathhouse) by the Works Progress Administration. As the caretakers who preceded him, Mr. Bain lives rent free in lieu of salary.
He took the position back in 1976, when his predecessor, a Mr. T. G. Oakley, decided the job had too many restrictions. “He didn’t like it that you have to stay here all the time.” Mr. Bain was working as a supervisor in the Dept. of Sanitation when he became caretaker but has since retired. Last September marked his 50th anniversary as an employee of the city of Durham.
     In addition to putting up and taking down the chain that bars the entrance to the loop on Knox Street, Mr. Bain’s routine includes rousting vagrants and reporting broken swings. He also reported the sinkhole that developed on the south side of the swimming pool and the theft, in November, of two chain saws from one of the sheds. Back in August he reported gun fire. It was dusk and he was putting up the chain when he heard a pistol shot, then, “I felt the wind from the bullet going by my head.” It was an isolated incident, an anomaly for Duke Park, but that bullet crosses his mind every night.
     Mr. Bain plays music to relax and entertain. He plays banjo, guitar and dobro (slide guitar). He performs with a group called “The Messengers of Faith”. They entertain folks at the Carver St. Retirement Home once a week. Sometimes he plays for his grandchildren, Cameron and Elizabeth, who visit regularly from South Carolina. Ten-year-old Cameron likes playing with the dogs his grandfather keeps and talking with the Urban Forestry Rangers. “They can tell you all about the land and trees and stuff.”
     Mr. Bain has been taking senior Sunday school classes at the Horton Road Church of God for the last twenty years. In February they gave him a plaque for “20 Years of Faithful Sunday School Attendance.” But they spelled his name wrong. “They’re going to fix that,” Mr. Bain says, smiling, like another stranger just waved at him. —Scott Mitchell

More articles about the park:
History of the park renovations controversy
Park renovations hit snag
Letter from DPNA V.P. Andrew Preiss