Dana Mc Dill

Kentfield/Greenbrae- A E Kent Middle School

I left school in early 1966 as I finagled an appointment to the US Merchant Marine. Consequently, while you were enjoying Prom and related activities I was on a rusty cargo ship, which was on fire and dead in the water,500 miles north of Midway Island. We got the fire out and limped into Tokyo harbor where we docked for repairs for a month. Later came Manila,Vietnam for the summer and back to LA,USA.
A short stay at COM , then I joined the VISTA program and off to New Mexico to fight poverty. I met Mary McGuirl ,another VISTA, at a conference in El Paso.
We moved to New York City, I worked at an ad agency as a photo for a bit. Both of us got jobs at a 6000 bed mental hospital ( lesson learned; don’t go crazy) , we got married, we went to the Woodstock festival with 450,000 friends, then back to SF.
I got a photograph published in LIFE Magazine plus a couple of covers on the Chronicle Sunday Magazine, a prose piece in The Whole Earth Catalog (page 312), and then with our two boys we moved to Minnesota.
I was the first Director of Minnesota Friends of the Earth and as such attended Washington meetings (and a great party once) with Sens Ted Kennedy and Joe Biden and others.
Since 1971 I have been making The Worlds Greatest Bath Boats and they are now floating on 6 continents. Mention Redwood for a discount.
Bathboats.com
“Happy Sailing “, Dana

Here’s one. I got some templates for painting street signs (thanks Chuck Neal’66) and painted “RESERVED FOR DANA MCDILL” on the parking space closest to the front door at Redwood. I forget the punishment I warranted for that one, but from then on, even if I got to school late, my slot was usually open.