William R. "Bill" Dawson, age 92, passed away March 8th, 2020 at home in Ann Arbor surrounded by his loving family. He was born in Los Angeles when it was a smaller, more beautiful city, surrounded by mountains and orange groves right beside the Pacific Ocean. After graduating from LA high school, he joined the Navy at 17 years old. He had time to take a semester at UCLA. He took a test with the Navy and was selected for engineering courses at Stanford for assisting the invasion of Japan. Luckily, World War II ended before he shipped out, and he went back to UCLA to earn his PHD.
In 1950 he married Virginia. She survives as well as his three children, four grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren.
Bill has been a teacher, scholar research scientist and administrator in his time. He taught Comparative Physiology, was chairman of Biological Sciences, and Director of the Museum of Zoology here at the University of Michigan. He was proud of his many affiliations with the University of Michigan and often attended Michigan sporting events with his loving wife.