On Monday, February 12th, Michael Albert Dugan passed away peacefully at his home after a long and bravely fought battle with cancer.
Born and raised in San Diego, California, Mike was the only child of the late Florence (Madey) and the late Albert Dugan.
He graduated from Chula Vista High School in 1961 and earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the College of Emporia in Emporia, Kansas, in 1966. Later that year Mike joined the United States Navy to become an air traffic controller, serving a total of 22 years that included a 13-month “winter over” at the South Pole and three-and-a-half years at Naval Station Adak in the Aleutian Islands. During his military career he was named Sailor of the Quarter several times and, at Naval Air Station Fallon, was honored as Sailor of the Year. Mike was proud of his professionalism as an air traffic controller, a job which he described as stressful but also exhilarating.
After his retirement from the Navy in late 1990, Mike continued his education at the University of Nevada, Reno, and graduated in 1994 with a Master’s Degree in Speech Communications. He became a part-time instructor at the Fallon
Campus of Western Nevada Community College (later Western Nevada College) teaching public speaking, oral communication, and cinema as art and communication. Teaching was another love of Mike’s, and he was selected by his students
as Instructor of the Year in two separate years. Mike was among the first WNC instructors to effectively utilize, at that time, new distance learning technology called interactive video to transmit classes from the Fallon campus to
other locations within the WNC service area. He authored a distance learning technical information manual to assist other instructors with the challenge. In addition to teaching, Mike was employed from 1999 to 2003 as Center Director for the Fallon Resident Center of Embry Riddle University located at NAS Fallon.
Mike was an avid reader, especially of the science fiction genre, but his true and lasting passion was playing golf. The cold weather, and even a little snow on the ground, would not deter Mike from a round at the Fallon Golf Course.
Mike is survived by his wife Virginia (Kurnik) Dugan to whom he was lovingly married for 39 years.
A celebration of Mike’s life will take place on Saturday, March 3rd, at 11 a.m. at Smith Family Funeral Home, 505 Rio Vista Drive, Fallon, NV. A reception at the same location will follow.
In lieu of flowers a donation may be made in Mike’s memory to Western Nevada College-Fallon Campus, 160 Campus Way, Fallon, NV 89406.