Bob Dunning moved from Portland to Davis with his family so his dad could finish a college degree that was interrupted by his service in World War II. Bob was five years old at the time. His family voted 4-3 to not leave him in Portland.
Bob attended many schools in Davis, several of which no longer exist, including Central Davis School, West Davis Elementary, Davis Junior High School and Davis High School.
Marguerite Montgomery may be an elementary school today, but Marguerite Montgomery was actually Bob’s fifth-grade teacher.
After graduating from Davis High School with a 2.45 GPA, Bob walked across Russell Boulevard to UC Davis and said “Here I am.” He does not remember applying for admission.
Bob played on the UC Davis tennis team, earning Most Valuable Player honors and serving as team captain. He was inducted into both the Cal Aggie Athletic Hall of Fame and the Davis High School Hall of Fame.
He later graduated with a juris doctorate from the UC Davis School of Law.
He worked full-time as Sports Editor of The Davis Enterprise while attending law school, but upon graduation decided to continue with journalism instead of pursuing a career in law.
He later transitioned away from sports and into writing a daily column on Page 2 known as The Wary Eye. Before he was laid off after 55 years in May of 2024, The Wary Eye was the longest-running daily newspaper column in the country. Bob was honored four times as the Columnist of the Year in the state of California by the California Newspaper Publishers Association.
Immediately after being laid off, Bob began The Wary One on Substack, where his regular column continues to this day. Because of the large number of subscribers he has attracted, he has been named as a Substack Bestseller.
In addition to his regular columns on Substack, Bob is a regular color commentator on ESPN+ for UC Davis baseball, softball, women’s soccer and men’s soccer.
Bob is married to Shelley and is a dad to Ted, Erin, Maev, Molly, Emme and Mick, and grandchildren Logan, Wyatt, Arrow, Ella, Satya and Sufi.
He is the happiest guy on earth.
Larry Lew will read selections from Bob Dunning’s work. Larry is happy to be returning to Stories on Stage Davis. Since the 1990’s, Larry has worked with a number of community theaters in the Sacramento area, including The Old Eagle Theater with Laura Lothian; Stockton’s Asian Pacific Theater Company with Dennis Yep and Val Acoba; Signag Tala with Sonny Alforque; Auburn’s Motherload Stage Company with Stuart S.W. Smith, and Celebration Arts with James Wheatley. He has also performed at Stories on Stage Sacramento, reading Steph Cha’s “All Luck” — an excerpt from her L.A.-based story “South Central Noir.” Larry leads a jazz ensemble that performs for hire in the Sacramento region.