Born in Manhattan, Duffy was one of fourteen children born to his Irish immigrant parents, Thomas Duffy and Anna Quirk. Raised in
Woodlawn, Bronx, he enlisted in the
United States Navy during
World War II and fought in the
Battle of Okinawa. After the war he studied music composition at
The New School with
Henry Cowell and
Solomon Rosowsky, and with
Aaron Copland at the
Tanglewood Music Center. Soon after completing his studies, he became music director of the Antioch Shakespeare Festival which was founded by
Arthur Lithgow. He went on to hold similar posts at the
Guthrie Theater, the
Long Wharf Theater and the
American Shakespeare Festival; writing several compositions for plays presented by those organizations. He also wrote scores for the Broadway productions of
J. P. Donleavy's
The Ginger Man and
Barbara Garson's
MacBird!. He won two
Emmy Awards for the music that he wrote for the documentaries:
A Talent for Life: Jews of the Italian Renaissance (1979, NBC) and
Heritage: Civilization and the Jews (1984, PBS). He was commissioned by the Sierra Club to compose "Symphony No. 1 — Utah" (premiered 1989 at Lincoln Center), and created "A Time for Remembrance," to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the
attack on Pearl Harbor for the
U.S. Department of the Interior. Duffy died at his home in Norfolk, Virginia in 2015 after a long battle with cancer. He was married to Dorothy Rouse-Bottom. ==References==