John Daniel Dobak II was born in Ft. Meade, SD, the son of cavalryman Alexander Dobak ’25. Beginning at an early age, John and his family traveled from post to post, including three years in the Canal zone. At one point, they had a spider monkey for a pet. When John’s father retired at Ft. Leonard Wood, John attended high school at the Missouri Military Academy, where he received his appointment to West Point. It must have been this background that taught John to shine shoes and polish brass, because one of his personal traits as a cadet was his fastidiousness. He always looked sharp.

Prior to attending West Point, John spent a year at Braden’s Preparatory School. The intense instruction at Braden helped John meet the initial challenges of Plebe academics, but he still had to work extremely hard over the next several years to survive academically. French was not one of his best subjects, and early in his cadet days he was pegged with the nickname Pierre.

Upon graduation, John entered the Marine Corps, one of only seven members of the class to do so. His first duty was at the Officer Basic Course at Quantico. There, John got a taste of Washington social life. At a Christmas party, he met lovely Susan Boyce, a sophomore at the College of New Rochelle, and they dated until John shipped out to Okinawa. During John’s long ab­sence, they became serious pen pals. As soon as he returned to the States, he boarded a Greyhound bus and headed straight for San Luis Obispo to see his “pen pal” Susan. After Susan graduated from college, John and Susan were married. Her mother proclaimed that Susan’s knight in shining armor had ar­rived aboard a “Greyhound” instead of the proverbial white horse.

John next was assigned to the Marine Corps Recruiting District in San Diego as an instructor. In 1964, he moved to the Marine Corps Base at 29 Palms in a field artillery position. There, John and Susan’s daughter Christine was born. John then at­tended school at the Army’s Field Artillery School at Ft. Sill, where their second child, John III, was born. After Ft. Sill, John com­manded a field artillery battery in Viet Nam, followed by duty with Headquarters Battery, 14th Marines at Treasure Island. In 1967, he moved the family south to Camp Pendleton. There, John transitioned into working with computers, eventually his vocation for the rest of his life. While at Camp Pendleton, the Dobak’s second son, Michael, was born, and John was selected to attend Amphibious Warfare School at Quantico. After gradua­tion, John returned to the recruiting district. A classmate who served with him at that time remembers John as “a steady and dedicated Marine who was liked and highly respected by those with whom he served.”

In 1971, John served another hardship tour on Okinawa. When he returned, he was assigned to duty at the Tustin Marine Corps Helicopter Base. For the next eight years, he served in various management informa­tion system assignments at El Toro Marine Base, Barstow Supply Depot, and Camp Pendelton, where he retired in 1980. When John and Susan purchased their house in Tustin, they decided it was important for the family to live in one place. Consequently, when necessary, John lived away during the week and commuted home on the week­ends. He was selflessly devoted to his family and rarely concerned for himself.

When John retired after 20 years, he worked for AT&T in Orange County and Los Angeles and then with the Superior Court in Orange County. In 1993, John be­came too ill to work and took a leave of ab­sence. As a child, John had fallen from a mov­ing car and sustained a serious head injury. He also had received radiation treatment for removal of scar tissue in his ears. Perhaps, as a result of one or the other of these episodes, in 1992, it was determined that John suffered from Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Lewy body disease, and Progressive Supernuclear Palsy. John struggled with these diseases for the next eight years until Susan could no longer physically care for him. He was then admit­ted to an assisted living facility, where he died three years later. The irony of John’s diseases was that he was always in perfect physical health. A runner, he ran three to five miles every day until he could no longer run, walk, talk, or feed himself.

In addition to proudly serving his coun­try, John leaves a wonderful family of a loving wife and three children. Their daughter Chris earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Southern Cal and a master’s degree in public health from UCLA. Their son John graduated cum laude from UCLA and received a medi­cal degree from the University of California at San Diego. Their son Michael graduated from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo and is an advertising executive. Susan has now retired from a 15-year career as a marketing director for a global publishing company.

John will be remembered as an easy­going person with a delightful sense of humor. His signature smile and sparking eyes defined his character. As a close friend offered, “he taught me to laugh more, relax more, and more importantly, to love more.” John lived the Marine Corps creed Semper Fidelis—always faithful. He subtly wove this value into the fabric of his family not by words or dogma, but through quiet, every­day example.

Now, as we sing the part of our Alma Mater that goes, “When we depart from thee, serving on land or sea, may we still loyal be, West Point, to thee. And when our work is done, Our course on earth is run, may it be said, Well done; be thou at peace,” we will always remember John at his finest, know­ing his job was well done and that he is now at peace.

Family and Fred Kaiser ’60