William A. Dahl – 50th Reunion Essay

William A. Dahl

800 S. Columbia St.

Chapel Hill, NC 27514

dahlhaus@nc.rr.com

919-599-2638

Spouse(s): Barbara Blum Dahl (1972)

Child(ren): Julia Elizabeth Dahl (1977); Susan Dahl Sharer (1978)

Grandchild(ren): Natalie Dahlia Sharer (2013); Micah Robert Bukiewicz (2015)

Education: Yale (‘69 -BA History); Stanford Law School (‘72-JD); Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary (‘04-MCM)

National Service: US Marine Corps, 72-76

Career: Attorney in Fresno, Calif – estate planning and real estate for 28 years (Thomas, Snell, et al for 14 years; McGregor, Dahl, et al for 14 years)

Avocations: Golf, shooting, hiking, photography

College: Ezra Stiles

After graduation in 1969, I went west to Stanford Law School, where I met my wife of (now) 46 years, Barbara (Vassar, ’69), a graduate student at Stanford, who was introduced to me by my classmate, Kim Street, who knew Barbara from their undergraduate days. After taking the California Bar Exam, I headed off to Quantico, Virginia, to train and serve for four years in the Marine Corps. Although considered a line officer, I spent most of my time as a trial lawyer and court-martial judge. The duty stations were pretty sweet after Quantico: San Diego and Newport, Rhode Island.

At the end of my service in 1976, and after travels in England and Scotland, we settled in Fresno, California, where I joined a large (by Fresno standards) firm doing estate planning, real estate, and some water law. Our two daughters, Julia and Susan, were born in quick succession in 1977 and 1978. I enjoyed the practice and living and working in California’s Central Valley despite the heat in the summer months. As a family, we spent much of our time hiking, biking and camping in the beautiful National Parks at our doorstep, and travelling to exotic places like Egypt (could not get away from the heat!), Nepal, Peru and western China. Both girls chose to go East to college, one to Yale and one to Vassar. Each is now living and working in Brooklyn. Susan is a vice president of development with the Prospect Park Alliance, and Julia is a novelist, with four published novels, and an investigative journalist with CBS News. Each daughter is married with one child, so we have two beautiful grandchildren, Micah, age 2, and Natalie, age 10.

When the girls finished their college and graduate schools, I decided to begin attending seminary part-time at the Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary in Fresno, transferring in 2002 to Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary on the Berkeley campus, from which I received my degree in 2004. I left my law practice and served an internship at Lutheran Campus Ministry at Fresno State University in 2004–2005. Barbara, who has had several careers in publishing, marketing and medical and behavioral research, thought we might want to relocate since I was changing careers and our children showed no signs of ever wanting to live west of the Hudson River! So, in the fall of 2005, we moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where Barbara was hired to set up a new clinical research department at the University of North Carolina’s medical school, and I was hired as Lutheran Campus Minister at Duke University. We both love living in a (two) campus community and retired here in late 2011. We celebrated this milestone by car camping (in a PT Cruiser) for 4-plus months throughout 36 states (covering over 16,000 miles). We remain active in our retirement, mixing a number of community service activities with worship and world travel, not least of which is travel to visit our two daughters and their growing families in the Big Apple.