Longtime civil servant Tom Duncan died Friday in Whitehorse at the age of 84.

Duncan was born in 1921 in Clydebank, Scotland, and served in the Royal Air Force as a flight lieutenant flying Spitfires in the Second World War.

After coming to Canada, Tom and his wife, Colleen, moved with their family in 1964 to the Yukon, where he had the job of the administrator of Yukon Health Care Insurance Services.

He later became the deputy minister of the Department of Health, Welfare and Corrections.

'He was my right hand,' Flo Whyard, the former minister of the department, said in an interview this morning.

It was under Duncan's leadership that a health plan was set up that the Yukon is still very much following today, she added.

'What my dad was very, very proud of was the medicare legislation and his part in that, in bringing medicare to the territory,' Pat, his youngest daughter and former Liberal premier of the Yukon, agreed in an interview this morning.

Duncan was a key player in the transfer of health care from the federal level to the Yukon, said Whyard. It was Duncan who helped convince several federal civil servants it was a good idea, she added.

'It was a big deal. Suddenly this little government was going to take it over. They needed some convincing. It was people like Tom that saw us through.'

Pat said she has heard from public servants about how forward-thinking her father was, especially in relation to the numbering on health care cards and how doctors are audited.

Whyard said Duncan was also responsible for the organization of health insurance for Yukoners travelling outside the territory.

'He was the kind of man that you could say, How do we do this?' And he would work it out,' said Whyard.

Duncan displayed his understanding of health care and accounting during the first-ever health ministers' conference held North of 60 in 1977.

It was Duncan who answered all the ministers' questions during the conference, said Whyard. 'He did a terrific job that day.'

He later became an administrator for the Department of Justice in the early 1980s. During that time, he worked with architects, judges and the legal community to aid in the construction of the Andrew Philipsen Law Centre in the early 1980s.

He later retired in 1986.

'He was an absolute public servant. It was service to the public and you do not spend, it's the taxpayers' nickel, it's not your's,' said Pat. 'That's the kind of guy he was.'

Her father was also active in sports and volunteer service.

He was a member of the Lions Club and helped with the building of the former swimming pool on Fourth Avenue. His work as the treasurer at the Montainview Golf Course earned him a lifetime membership.

Duncan was also an avid curler and played in the nationals twice on the Yukon-N.W.T. Senior Men's team.

'Being married to my mom and the five of us (children) and health care were the things he was proudest of,' said Pat.

Her father leaves behind five grown children Pat, Ken, Sheila, Rebecca and Gordon, and 11 grandchildren.

'They are wonderful people,' Whyard said of Tom and Colleen. 'They raised their kids to be true assets to the North.'

'Service to the public. That was the kind of guy he was, and we learned from his example,' said Pat.

Her father died from cancer-related causes at Copper Ridge Place. He had been in the hospice since last November.