Dunnigan

Las Vegas, Nevada

July 28, 1945 — July 2, 2021

The Pendleton High School Class of 1963 recently lost another of its valued members. On July 2, Dan Gerald Dunnigan, 75, suddenly passed in Las Vegas, Nevada, due to a lingering illness.

Dan was born July 28, 1945, in Pendleton, to Jerry and Fay Dunnigan. He was raised on Ninth Drive in southeast Pendleton, just 300 feet from the seasonal, swift waters of the Umatilla River. Did the thought of drifting rivers in rubber rafts get planted in Dan’s mind at an early age?!

He attended Washington Grade School, then Helen McCune Junior High. It was there that he began playing a trumpet and was a band member throughout his school years. A visit to PHS was made by Doc Severinsen of the Johnny Carson Tonight Show. Dan became one of few who could master Doc’s signature, “triple-tongue” trumpet play. Other school activities included the yearbook staff and ski club. His mother, Fay, was an avid skier in her youth.

Soon after his high school graduation and attendance at Eastern Oregon College, Dan began his life of outdoor adventure at the U.S. Forest Service’s Dale Ranger District, then moved on to become a Northwest-area smoke jumper. During winters, he resided in the Roaring Fork Valley at Aspen, Colorado — a huge step up from his beginning days on the rope tows of Anthony Lakes and Tollgate. Dan soon became a certified ski instructor, a vocation he then followed in Aspen for some 40 years. Dan was a favorite instructor and skiing partner. In summers, he worked as a professional guide for groups rafting the whitewater of the West’s largest rivers. Sandwiched between these activities was real estate sales work. And yes, a friend recalls during the late 1950s joining Dan on his first raft trip of any kind, down the Umatilla River, capsizing while laughing, alongside the Round-Up Grounds.

In recent years, Dan retired from skiing and rafting work. In its place, he took up full-time RV travel in western states. He often worked as a staff person at large campgrounds.

Dan was preceded in death by his parents and his sister, Teri Dunnigan Jackson. Surviving him is a cousin, Susan Martin Pleasant (Jim) of Dallas, Texas, and nieces and nephews.

Davis Mortuary, Las Vegas, Nevada, is in charge of arrangements.

A close friend recently remarked, “I knew Dan for 60 years. He was slow to criticize and the first to laugh with you and at himself — a generous soul who will be missed by many.”