Michael Dunham

Michael Herman Dunham
(March 30, 1951 - July 21, 2019)

Michael Herman Dunham, age 68, passed away on Sunday, July 21, 2019 in Madison, Wisconsin, after a long, fearless struggle with heart disease. He was born on March 30, 1951 in Dayton, Ohio; the second son of Robert F. Dunham, Sr., and Marjorie (Fortune) Dunham, both of whom preceded him in death.

Michael leaves behind Nancy, his wife of 42 years; his brother, Bob Dunham, Jr., and sister-in-law, Essie of Sun Prairie; his children, Lisa Yandow Olson (and her husband, Dan) of Madison, and Richard Yandow (and his wife, Jennifer) of Fox Point, WI.; four grandsons, Ethan, Keller, Quinn and Archer; a niece, Lani LaForge Cross (and her husband, Mike Schultz) of New Carrollton, MD; several cousins (including Alan Dunham, Missy Ann Matyas, Jerda Jones, Emma Bayliff Rieth and Holly Jones) and a number of beloved friends.

Michael attended public school in Dayton, and received a high school diploma from the John H. Patterson Co-op High School in 1969. While still in high school, Michael began working for Delco Products in Dayton. He often said that one of his all-time favorite jobs was working as an expeditor in the model shop at Delco.

In September of 1970, Michael enrolled at Kent State University. In 1972, he accepted an internship in Washington, D.C., to work for the Coalition on National Priorities and Military Policy (an anti-Vietnam War organization), chaired by former Connecticut Senator, Joseph Clark. After leaving Washington, he spent some time traveling cross-country to California. Eventually, he found his way to Vermont where he, for a while, tried his hand at being a working musician, writing songs and playing with his good friend, John Siggens, in coffee houses, ski bars, and college campuses, in a duo they'd jokingly dubbed the "Floating Tempos."

During that time, he enrolled at the University of Vermont (UVM), where he met his good friend and mentor, Gil McCann, who recognized Michael's intellectual qualities and encouraged him to develop his academic potential (as well as teaching him about fine wine and cuisine). At UVM, Michael also began to hone his computer programming skills, which carried him far in his career.

During that time period, he happily "signed on" to raise his two young step-children, Lisa and Richard, with his marriage to Nancy. In 1977, the newly formed family moved to Madison, Wisconsin, so that Michael could Nancy in attending graduate school. Michael obtained a position as a computer programmer for the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin. At the time, he also enrolled as an undergraduate student, and obtained his baccalaureate degree in 1980.

In the late 1980s, during a brief sojourn to New York City, he worked for the Health and Hospitals Corporation of New York City, to develop start-ups of managed care clinics in various city public hospitals.

In the early 1990s, he started his own businesses: Community Care Management, which, among other things, ran the Children Come First Program for Dane County Social Services for some years; and Community Care Systems, which provided consulting services and internet-distributed care management software to social service and mental health systems of care across the country, serving as Chief Executive Officer until his retirement in 2015.

Michael was passionately devoted to sports car racing and was a competitive amateur sports car driver; racing under the auspices of the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) and the Midwest Council of Sport Car Clubs (MCSCC) for a number of years. He also loved being in the woods and, over the course of more than 35 years, he spent countless hours hunting, fishing, hiking and camping with his best friend, John Chapin. In addition, for 20+ years, he was an avid sea kayaker, and with his wife, Nancy, took a number of week-long kayak and camping expeditions to the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, the Georgian Bay of Lake Huron, and the Sea of Cortez. For a while, Michael was also an avid bicycle rider and, in 2004, biked from Venice to Florence, Italy with Nancy and with long-time friends, Sandy Wright and Michael Soref.

Michael and Nancy loved to take road trips, and he had visited every state in the Union (the last one on his list, Hawaii, was just "checked off" this past January). He had also traveled internationally to Italy, Cuba, Mexico, Canada, Greece, England, and Scotland. He was especially pleased to have had the opportunity to travel to Alaska in December 2017 with his son, Richard, so that they could experience the Northern Lights together. He also remembered with great fondness the vacations he and Nancy took to Portland, Oregon and Sausalito/San Francisco with cherished friends, Eileen and Rick Parfrey.

Michael was absolutely "over the moon" about the births of his four grandsons, and spent many happy hours with them as babies, toddlers and growing boys. He cherished every moment he spent with them, and supported all of their sports, music, drama and school activities, often taking wonderful "action photos" of their various sports feats. He also prized the many family lake vacations he and Nancy took with their children and grandsons; to Egg Harbor and Kangaroo Lake in Door County, and White Sand Lake in Lac du Flambeau, Wisconsin. And, not too long before he passed, he'd spent a joy-filled week at the Jersey Shore with family.

In addition to his passions, joys and wide-ranging interests, throughout his adult life Michael contended with a number of chronic health problems and, from time to time, with the "big black dog" (his words) of depression. His fortitude in facing those issues was appreciated by his wife, other family members and his close friends.

His was a unique personality: perfectly imperfect. inquisitive, generous, restless - sometimes exasperating - he most wanted to make sure that his children and grandchildren knew how much he loved them. He will be sorely missed.

A small, private burial is planned for Thursday, July 25, 2019 at the Natural Path Sanctuary (the Farley Center for Peace, Justice and Sustainability) in Verona, Wisconsin.

A larger celebration of Michael's life will be held on Sunday, August 11, 2019 at 11:00 am (visitation beginning at 10:00 am) at Cress Funeral and Cremation Service, 6021 University Avenue, Madison, followed by a light lunch and the opportunity for family and friends to gather and share stories, smiles and laughter.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that well-wishers consider donating to the Farley Center for Peace, Justice and Sustainability: https://farleycenter.org/