Former Air Force Pilot, High School Principal Dies

Duncan J. Powers, 84, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and school principal, died Tuesday after a short illness.

The Laguna Hills resident, a native of Elgin, Ill., came to Los Angeles with his family in 1911. After graduating from the University of Southern California in the late 1920s, he joined the Army Air Corps and became a pilot. He later flew for Pan American World Airways.

In 1939, he began teaching in Los Angeles and, in 1940, married Florence Melrose, a member of a pioneer Anaheim family.

At the outbreak of World War II, Powers returned to the Air Corps, serving at Mather Field near Sacramento, the Santa Ana Army Air Corps Base and the Western Training Command headquarters in Santa Ana. He remained in the Air Force reserves and eventually retired as a lieutenant colonel.

He resumed his teaching career in the Los Angeles Unified School District in 1947. He was a high school principal at the time of his retirement in 1967.

He and his wife lived in Anaheim from 1949 until 1972, when they moved to Leisure World in Laguna Hills.

Powers is survived by a daughter, Margaret Kastner of Menlo Park, and two grandsons, Tom Kastner of Tokyo and Roger Kastner of Santa Barbara.

Visitation will be from 2 to 5 p.m. Friday at McCormick & Son Mortuary, 25000 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills. Funeral services will be at 9 a.m. Saturday at St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Laguna Hills. Burial will follow at Holy Sepulcher Cemetery in Orange.