Documentary film producer and writer Dayton Duncan of Rindge will tell stories from his life and career in the Monadnock region at Friday’s “Stories to Share” at Jaffrey Civic Center.

The event, which is the last in the series for 2024-2025, starts at 5 p.m. and will be followed by a question-and-answer session. Reservations are suggested.

“I’m going to talk about how a kid from small town in Iowa has now spent more than 50 years in Monadnock region. I’ve had a peripatetic life,” Duncan said. “Although, by New England standards, I guess you would say it’s ‘only’ been 50 years. I still call myself an Iowan; and I’m still figuring out why this region has such a hold on me.”

Duncan is known for his many collaborations with award-winning documentary filmmaker Ken Burns. He is the author of 14 books, many of which inspired some of Burns’ best-known films and series, including “Lewis and Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery,” “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea,” “Country Music,” “Mark Twain,” “The Dust Bowl,” “The West” and “Benjamin Franklin.”

“I was always suggesting ideas for films to Ken, and he finally said, ‘If I’m doing it, I’m doing it with you,” Duncan said.

Dayton, who grew up in Iowa with Quaker roots, first came to the Monadnock region as a conscientious objector. After graduating from the University to Pennsylvania, he came to Elliot Community Hospital (which later became Cheshire Medical Center) in Keene to do his national service.

“After four years in Philadelphia, I knew he did not like big cities, and I knew I did not want to stay in Philly. From where I came from, Keene would have been a big city,” Duncan said.

At Elliot Community Hospital, where he stocked shelves and ran the print shop, Duncan met Ernest Hebert, who went on to become a successful novelist and professor of creative writing at Dartmouth.

“Ernest Hebert was pumping gas on Winchester Street when I met him. He had just done at MFA program at Stanford; he wanted to be poet and novelist, but he had no marketable skills. So he started writing sports at The Keene Sentinel, and we became good friends,” Duncan said.

When his national service was complete, Duncan joined Hebert at The Sentinel.

“They needed a stringer for their sports pages – Ernest told me about it – so I started covering Keene High Blackbirds and doing freelance feature stories, and that sent me in a different direction entirely from teaching literature, which was what I had intended to do,” Duncan said.

Duncan, who had already deferred his graduate school acceptance to do his national service, became a full-time reporter.

“It was a great time to be a newspaper reporter. It was before Watergate; ‘All The President’s Men’ had not come out yet—newspapers were always desperate to hire someone who could put a sentence together, and work long hours for no pay. You had to have an innate curiosity,” Duncan said. “Ernie taught me everything I needed to know – how to write a news story. The Sentinel is a very good small daily newspaper. We had great editors; we had great staff who wanted to do well. A number of us went on to great careers.”

After five years at The Sentinel, Duncan was asked to serve as press secretary for New Hampshire Gov. Hugh Gallen in 1978, and went on to work for Gov. Michael Dukakis’ presidential campaign. It was during his time in the State House that Duncan met Burns, and the two became friends. Dayton and his family then moved to Walpole, home of Burns’ Florentine Films, and lived there for 30 years, before retiring to the family home on Lake Contoocook.

“We can see Monadnock from the house,” he said. “It’s just perfect.”

Even after 50 years in a career that spanned everything from covering high school sports to writing internationally known films, Duncan still considers himself a reporter first and foremost.

“I love going out and finding things out. I love interviewing people; I love taking what you’ve learned and figuring out how to write a story from it— how to make it clear, how to move it along, how to tell people things they ought to know,” Duncan said.

To reserve a seat or for information, go to jaffreyciviccenter.com.