Join us in honoring

Fred and Kathi Dunne

Fred and Kathi Dunne have been happily married for nearly 30 years and have nine children and four grandchildren. They met when Fred was in the Coast Guard and Kathi was the music director at St Bernadette Catholic Church in Clear Lake. Some of their happiest memories revolve around family vacations hiking in California and playing music together as the Dunne Family Fiddlers. With a large family of musicians and actors, there has been no shortage of laughter, music, and fun- every night is a dinner party at the Dunne House! Their extended family keeps growing with dear friends, Godchildren, and the happy addition of in-laws and grandchildren, ensuring their house and hearts are full.

Featuring Guest Speaker:

Dia Boyle, author of The Thoughtful Home

When we had to research a profession in 7th grade I chose “sociologist”– but I knew what I really wanted to do was have a family and run a home. It seemed to me, then as now, that this would be the happiest life! As an undergraduate at Cornell College I fell in love with the truth, and as a graduate student at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies I fell in love with my husband. He was planning to be a college professor, and that seemed just about perfect to this professor’s daughter raised in a college town.

I spent the next few decades living my dream, raising three fine children, making a home for our family, and endlessly reading, thinking, listening, and talking. Over the years so many girls found their way to my living room where, over a cup of coffee, we talked about life, dreams, God, family, work, and boys. Now they call it mentoring, but I have always thought of it as friendship. The importance of the home was a common subject of interest, concern, and anxiety. 

I now have an empty nest but a busy home, often filled with family, students, friends, and random guests from around the world. I speak, write, and teach on quite a few topics, but my favorite one is the home. I love reading Wallace Stegner and Marilynne Robinson, dancing the rumba at weddings, going up north and out west and down south, and baking Julia Child’s Reine de Saba torte.

And now it turns out that I’m a writer! I’ve written The Thoughtful Home, about what a home is and what it is for. ~Dia