He’s the Will Rogers of Davis.

His irreverence about “all things right and relevant” locally is a facade for his deep love of this community.

In town since 1951, he has seen a sleepy (cow?) town turn into an often-bustling city, ever pushed forward by a world-class university.

For Bob Dunning — next month to be inducted into the 2012 class of the Blue & White Foundation’s Davis High School Hall of Fame — home is where the heart is, and his heart will always be in Davis.

Pay tribute

What: Davis High School Hall of Fame induction

When: 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 15

Where: Freeborn Hall, UC Davis

Tickets: $65 each, www.dhsblueandwhite.org

“I love writing a column in a town that I understand,” says the longtime Davis Enterprise journalist and 1964 DHS graduate. “I know Davis. If I want to praise the school or bash the City Council … I feel like I have standing to do it.”

No argument from folks who have known Dunning over the years.

“In ways big and small — through his daily column, ‘The Wary I’ — Bob has been a huge booster and supporter of Davis and DHS,” says former Mayor Dave Rosenberg, now a Yolo Superior Court judge. “He has served as the conscience of the community, the town poet laureate and our local Herb Caen.”

Rosenberg recalls how Dunning would “puncture me on every possible opportunity” while serving on the City Council and as a county supervisor: “But it was always in good humor and good spirit.”

Dunning moved to Davis when he was 5 when his dad Jim came to UC Davis to complete his education. Mom Dorothy and Bob’s four siblings were in tow as the family made their first stop at the old Davis Motel.

“We were Davis’ first homeless for a while,” laughs the often tongue-in-cheek writer.

Since those early digs, it’s interesting that one of Dunning’s enduring legacies has been to make people feel at home … at the very least, comfortable.

For decades, Dunning has been the emcee of choice for local banquets, fundraisers and service club gatherings.

His local humanitarian efforts have been many, though he prefers the background and is reluctant to talk about his involvement. However, one such fundraising cause — Dinner at the Dump — will be forever linked to Dunning.

Dinner at the Dump, hosted for 20 years at Davis Waste Removal, was born as a joke between Dunning and the late Sandy Motley, then mayor of Davis. It became reality one day after Motley accepted an invitation in 1984 from the newspaperman to tour “the other side of Davis.”

Dunning, who lives in East Davis, frequently has fun in print with his neighbors and neighborhood. On that day 28 years ago, Motley encouraged the writer to create the fundraiser.

After 20 years of supporting programs and places like the Davis Senior Center, school bond measures and STEAC, Dinner at The Dump outgrew DWR and faded away. In its wake, more than $430,000 was raised for local causes and organizations.

Dunning, a 1968 UCD graduate, attended Oregon State briefly before returning to town to attend UCD’s King Hall School of Law in the early ’70s. Back in Davis, he was hired as The Enterprise’s sports editor. (“The job paid for law school.”)

But upon matriculation, Dunning took his law degree and shelved it. The print bug had bitten him.

“(The law degree) has been helpful over the years … and I’m still interested in the law, but I could never see where I’d fit as a lawyer,” Dunning explains. “Besides, I was having a ball in sports, writing my column.”

And the readers were loving it, too.

“Bob became a sports writer for the Enterprise … about the same time I became head football coach at UCD,” says Aggie legend Jim Sochor. “Beyond his outstanding work in the journalistic world, and his abilities as an athlete, Bob has been such an outstanding individual in so many other ways.

“Freely giving of his time and energy, Bob has been instrumental in aiding the town of Davis and the entire region. There may not be a more wonderful human being on the planet than Bob: He’s talented, caring of others and most deserving of this award.”

Dunning and his wife Shelley have four children: Maev, 11; Molly, 10; Emme, 9; and Mick, 7; all four attend North Davis Elementary. Dunning will complete a unique daily double when school begins Wednesday: His granddaughter Satya, 5, starts kindergarten at North Davis.

Dunning’s grown daughter Erin, Satya’s mom, is a local resident and grown son Ted, a father of three, lives in Redwood City.

Over the years, Dunning has drawn regional and national spotlights as well.

His Sirius radio program, “Across the Nation,” ran for five years. For three years, he had a nighttime KFBK Sacramento show and he’s currently the host of Northern California’s “Bishop’s Hour,” now in its 13th year.

Dunning, much like he does each week in The Enterprise, makes weekly football picks and talks about the game on another radio outlet.

And some of Dunning’s Davis experiences have just been good old-fashioned fun — he beat tennis pro Bobby Riggs in the mid-1970s — and interesting — in February he and his family swore to spend no money for a month. Shelley and Bob called it “Frugal February,” and in sticking to their game plan, draw national attention.

Television presenter Anderson Cooper featured the Dunnings on his syndicated talk show, and radio stations and newspapers throughout America were in touch with the East Davis penny-pinchers.

“We were invited to a show in San Francisco,” Dunning remembers. His cars had been gassed up in January and at that point had enough petrol to make the Bay Area (and back).

But Dunning realized there were two stumbling blocks in accepting the offer.

“San Francisco is expensive,” he says, looking skyward. “But we managed to take the whole family, walk around Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 39 and not spend a dime.”

The other speed bump?

“The bridge toll! We thought we could have taken the long way and driven around, but we wouldn’t have gas for the way back,” Dunning remembers.

However, that morning, Molly was discussing the upcoming trip in her fourth-grade class. Asked about what they were going to do about the bridge toll, she said she didn’t know.

Problem solved. The teacher has a FastPass and lent it to Molly.

That’s another reason Dunning and his family love their community, where most things take a village.

Notes: Dunning is an accomplished tennis player who was Aggie MVP in 1967 and team captain the following year — both Far Western Conference championship years. …Asked why he thought he is so popular as an event emcee, Dunning didn’t miss a beat — “I suspect that it’s that I’m cheap. I work for food.” Others might argue differently: “Bob can take on the mayor, the chancellor or his next-door neighbor and get the same laugh from each,” said one Hall of Fame nominator. …Dunning joins DHS graduates Eric Hoeprich (music) and Marc Hicks (athletics), former Davis schools chief Floyd Fenocchio and ex-Blue Devil coach and teacher Dewey Halden in the fifth DHS Hall of Fame class.

— Reach Bruce Gallaudet at [email protected] or (530) 747-8047.

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He had a lot more hair then, but the same dedication to the job, as sports editor Bob Dunning lines up an interview in The Enterprise office in the mid-1970s. Courtesy photo

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One of Bob Dunning’s most treasured memories is playing tennis against Bobby Riggs on May 14, 1977. Courtesy photo

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Always trustworthy, Bob Dunning was a Cub Scout at age 8 in 1954. Courtesy photo

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Oregon State University fan Bob Dunning and his young kids get a look at Raley Field from field level at a special Father’s Day event in West Sacramento. From left are Maev, Mick, Molly and Emme. Courtesy photo

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Longtime Davis Enterprise columnist Bob Dunning looks good in blue and white as he congratulates the DHS lacrosse team on Break the Record Night in 2011. Dunning was invited to fling the first ball. Courtesy photo

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