A Custodian Whose Care Has Extended Beyond the Duke Chapel Building

Photo above: Oscar Dantzler receives applause following a prayer for him during the Duke Chapel Sunday morning service on November 9.

Listen to an interview with Dantzler as he walks through Duke Chapel, sharing the memories and wisdom that made him a widely known figure at Duke and beyond.

Back when senior Christina Colwell was visiting Duke with her family as a prospective student, she entered Duke Chapel, where her father struck up a conversation with one of the housekeepers, Oscar Dantzler.

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“He just had the most positive things to say [about Duke students], and I could sense my parents become more at ease,” Colwell remembers about the interaction. “Duke can be super intimidating, and he just personalizes it and says, ‘This can be a place for you.’”

That was one of many memories shared at a recent reception for Dantzler in anticipation of his retirement on November 25 after twenty-eight years as a custodian at the Chapel. Students, university leaders, and colleagues described him as a meticulous housekeeper, goodwill ambassador, sports pundit, voracious eater, and guardian of students.

“I want the parents to go home realizing that their students are going to be all right,” Dantzler said about how he speaks to families dropping off first-year students. “My reward is when that student graduates, goes out there and gets their life started, and then comes back through the [Duke Chapel] door, and says, ‘Oscar, I want you to meet my family.’”

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Dantzler’s holistic approach to his job drew recognition over the years. A widely known figure on campus, he was featured in the 2009 documentary Philosopher Kings that showcased the wisdom of eight custodians working at universities across the country. In 2016, Dantzler was named to the university committee that made recommendations to honor Julian Abele, the prominent twentieth-century African American architect who designed Duke Chapel and other campus buildings. Later that year, Dantzler received Duke’s highest honor for distinguished service, the University Medal, for his caretaking of Duke’s Chapel and its students.

In his remarks at the reception, Dantzler thanked the university, his “family at the Chapel,” Religious Life staff members, the five Duke presidents he knew, the late Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans, the three Chapel deans he served under, and others. He especially extolled two women. He singled out his longtime coworker Beverly Jordan as “what makes Oscar go for twenty-eight years.” He also recounted being able to take five months off work to care for his dying mother back home in Florida.

“I wouldn’t be standing here if it wasn’t for my mother,” he said. “She never seen my achievements because the Lord brought her home to him, but I know she's watching over me.”

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Chapel Dean Luke Powery remembered light moments with Dantzler, such as receiving phone calls on his cell phone from his own office phone when Dantzler was working in the dean’s office and wanted to talk. Dean Powery also remembered poignant moments that Dantzler facilitated. One was arranging a meeting between Powery’s family and the poet Maya Angelou whose talk about rainbows in the sky “was a confirmation of our call” to come to Duke Chapel. The other was on the Monday after Powery’s official installation as dean, when Dantzler presented Powery with a photograph of Julian Abele that he had been keeping in his closet for years. “I could sense that I was being entrusted as a steward of the stones Abele had designed and Oscar has cared for,” Powery has written about the moment.

“Oscar has been an unexpected, unassuming conduit of God's grace,” Powery said.

In a surprise video message, former Duke president Richard Brodhead recounted a time early in his tenure when he went to Duke Chapel for a moment of quiet but ended up in conversation with Dantzler, who led him on a trip to the top of the Chapel tower.

“That's when I understood, you are maybe the head of housekeeping in Duke Chapel—and you kept that house so beautifully,” President Brodhead said addressing Dantzler, “but what you really have been is something more like the host of Duke Chapel, who welcomes people in.”

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The tributes poured in: a signed basketball from Coach Mike Krzyzewski, letters from Coach Kara Lawson and NBA commissioner Adam Silver, a framed photo from the Duke Chapel Choir, a plaque from Duke Police, a football jersey with “Dantzler 28” from Student Affairs, and a lifetime invitation to fellowship meals from the Congregation at Duke Chapel.

After the formal remarks, Stephen Harper, who sang in the Chapel Choir for decades, shared a memory about Dantzler inviting him and his wife Sara to sit at the table with him during the banquet for the 2016 University Medal honorees.

“That was such an honor [coming from] someone who is otherwise a bit cagey and irascible,” Harper said. “And he introduced us to people who were there as his parents.”

Beverly Jordan, Dantzler’s Duke Chapel custodian colleague for the last fourteen years, explained how he would always introduce her to his wide network of people from all walks of life.

“He puts me up there with where he's at and with the people that he knows,” she said. “He used to give me a hard time, and now he’s like my best friend.”