Spruce Creek Fly-in Folks in the News
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Air Force Association’s new leader has local ties
By MARK HARPER
The Daytona Beach News-Journal Education Writer
After a stellar, 34-year ride in the Air Force, in which he climbed all the way to the rank of a three-star general, Mike Dunn left last summer, returning to a golf-course home in Spruce Creek Fly-In.
The Dunn File  |
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NAME: Michael Dunn AGE: 57 FAMILY: Grandfather, Blair Dunn, moved to Daytona Beach from Palatka, helping to start Dunn Inc., which owned a hardware store, lumber company and other associated businesses. Father Philip “Buck” Dunn ran Dunn Lumber and Supply. Brother Luckey, a physician, is the new dean of the Florida State University College of Medicine branch in Daytona Beach; brother Colin retired from the Army as a colonel and sister Helen Taylor helps run a local business, Buddy’s Towing. Dunn is married to Patricia “Pam” Middleton Dunn and has two sons, Blair and Kyle. CAREER: Retired from Air Force in 2006 after 34 years, attaining the rank of lieutenant general. He flew as a command pilot and later served as president of the National Defense University. EDUCATION: Graduated fourth in his class from the Air Force Academy in 1972, when he earned a bachelor of science degree in astrodynamics. Completed Squadron Officer School in 1976. He earned a master of science degree in systems management from the University of Southern California in 1981. He is also a graduate of Air Command and Staff College and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. |
As he was exiting, and with no desire to consider himself retired, Dunn applied for the presidency at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in his hometown, Daytona Beach.
“For me, it was the perfect job,” he said.
But although on paper Dunn appeared to be a perfect candidate, Embry-Riddle board members already had someone more perfect, their interim president John Johnson, who got the job. Dunn finished a close second.
Dunn, 57, has bounced back from that disappointment. On July 1, he will become the next Air Force Association president and chief executive officer.
He will oversee the Arlington, Va.-based association that serves 125,000 members and employs a full-time staff of about 70. His first job: Educating the public on the need for a strong national defense, as well as airspace and cyberspace power.
Dunn’s lone regret in taking the job, he said, is leaving the Daytona Beach area, where his family started the Dunn Corp. more than 100 years ago.
He left the area after graduating from Seabreeze High School in 1968. Then, as now, it was the Air Force that lured him away.
“I chose the Air Force Academy because I wanted the best education I could get,” Dunn said in a recent telephone interview. “The academy prided itself on academic excellence. The teachers, instructors and professors there had one job: to teach. They were there for us.”
One semester at the academy, he took 30 credit hours. He finished fourth in his class. It was only after his graduation that he would go on to flight school in Valdosta, Ga., where he met his wife, Pam.
While he served as a command pilot, he continued his studies, earning a master’s degree from the University of Southern California at a night program, attending Air Force schools and executive courses at Harvard and MIT.
He commanded the 1st Operations Group at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia and provided military expertise to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, particularly on Asia following Sept. 11, 2001. He served as the lead negotiator with the North Korean Army at P’anmunjom.
He ultimately became president of the National Defense University, where he created “The Pinnacle,” a course for generals. When it came time to leave, he longed to return to Daytona Beach.
“For me, Embry-Riddle was a perfect job,” Dunn said. “But I believe it would have been better if it had come along a year later, when I would have had time to think about it and prepare better.”
The Air Force Association Board of Directors was glad it didn’t.
“We are very fortunate to have someone of Mike Dunn’s caliber as the next president of our association,” Bob Largent, chairman of the board, said in a written statement.
Dunn views the job as similar to that of a college president.
In addition to advocating for the Air Force, he will assume responsibility for the new Air Force Memorial.
Before officially taking over as president, Dunn has already moved to the Washington, D.C., area to start looking for a home. And in an interview, he couldn’t help but take up for the Air Force’s need to replace an aging fleet of aircraft.
“The average age (of its planes) is 24 years,” he said. “The average age when I joined was eight years. Imagine trying to maintain a 24-year-old car. Not only is the technology leaving us, but expenses are going up.”