Henry D. Duga, the first employee hired by Buell Motorcycles and a long-time Buell racing manager, died on Tuesday, October 28th, at his home in Milwaukee. He was 66 years old.
Funeral services are scheduled for Monday, November 3rd at Schmidt & Bartelt Wauwatosa Funeral Home, 10121 W. North Ave., Wauwatosa, Wisconsin 53226, phone (414) 774-5010. Visitation is scheduled to start at 10:00 a.m. with a service starting at at 1:00 p.m., followed by burial at Arlington Park Cemetery in Milwaukee.
His obituary appears here: http://www.schmidtandbartelt.com/obituaries/detail…
Erik Buell, founder of the now-closed Buell Motorcycles subsidiary of Harley-Davidson and of its independent successor EBR (Erik Buell Racing), remembers his first employee:
“Henry worked for me from about 1985 to 2009 when Buell was shut down (by Harley-Davidson). He was my first Buell employee. He came to work for me in my little three-car garage where Buell started, machining things like clad aluminum brake rotors and Dymag wheel adapters, then pieces for (the) RR1000 and on. His real love was racing, though, and he was such a nice guy, so after some years when we finally could field race support I put him in charge.
“After Buell was shut down he was able to retire. His health had been iffy for a number of years prior to that, but he told me that if I needed him to come out of retirement, just call. I knew how intense and stressful it would be so I told him to enjoy his retirement. Glad I did because I know he used the last five years to travel a lot, visit friends and go to all kinds of racing events.
“Sorry, I am kinda overwhelmed by it…”