Olivia and Clive Dorman: A lifelong embrace of community, curiosity, and adventure

Meet Your Neighbor

Oct 6

**Olivia and Clive Dorman**
*A lifelong embrace of community, curiosity, and adventure*

California-raised. Can you talk about your background and how you both met?

Olivia: Clive’s mother was my teacher at Saratoga High School for both biology and chemistry, and my mother, who also taught at the same school, was my French teacher. At the end of my freshman year in college – I went to Vassar College and majored in French - when I was back in Los Gatos, my mother was hosting an end of the year faculty party. Clive’s mother sent him over to do the dishes. We met and he has been doing the dishes ever since! We’ve been married for 55 years.

Clive: I grew up around the general Los Gatos area, although I was born in Illinois where my parents lived during the early 1940s. During WWII my father was declared industry critical because he worked for Shell Oil as a chemist and was transferred to Illinois. After the war was over we returned to California. Initially we lived near Modesto, and then eventually we moved to the southern end of the Bay Area, which is where I went to grammar school and high school.

Clive, can you talk about your educational path, which lead into military service that influenced your life’s work?

I went to the University of California, Riverside where I received my BA in Physics. Just as I started a master’s program at the University of Arizona, I made the decision to join the Air Force. This was in the 1960s. At that time, you had different career options. I was assigned to meteorology and received my officer training in San Antonio, TX. Then I attended the Basic Weather Officer Course at New York University. I was a weather officer for a year in New York City, during Olivia’s last year at Vassar College. As soon as she graduated in 1967, we went back to Los Gatos and got married.

After you married, you and Olivia were stationed in Panama, in the Canal Zone.

Yes, I served as a duty weather forecaster, assigned to the Canal Zone in Panama, and was stationed at Howard Air Force Base. It was an accompanied tour, so Olivia was able to join me. First we lived in Panama City, and then moved into housing that was located within the Canal Zone.

Can you explain the Canal Zone and your role as a duty weather forecaster?

The Panama Canal Zone was an unincorporated territory of the United States from 1903 to 1979 within the territory of Panama. This territory, located in what was the northwest section of Columbia, was ceded by the Panamanians with the assistance of the Americans in exchange for control of the area, which allowed for the construction of the Panama Canal.

This ten-mile band around the canal, referred to as the Canal Zone, had several Army, Air Force and Navy bases to defend and operate the Panama Canal. There were many planes that went from the continental United States to Panama and then, on to South America. I was part of a small detachment that dealt with the weather to guide and inform planes along this route.

How long were you stationed in Panama?

We lived in Panama for two and a half years. Towards the end of our stay, we were able to take a few weeks and travel to Ecuador and Peru.

Then you moved to Oregon where you both resumed your studies and pursued advanced degrees.

Olivia: After we returned from Panama we moved to Oregon, and Clive went to Oregon State University where he received his master’s and PhD in physical Oceanography. At the same time, I attended the University of Oregon and received my master’s in Romance Languages. Then I taught at Linn-Benton Community College while Clive continued his studies. Also, while living in Corvallis, we had our first son, Benton – named after Benton County, Oregon.

From there you relocated back to California.

Olivia: Once Clive received his PhD, he joined the Department of Geological Sciences at San Diego State University (SDSU), to teach courses in oceanography from 1974 through 2012, and is now an emeritus Professor. I taught French at a local high school, following in the tradition of my mother.

While at San Diego State University you had many external opportunities to explore your field.

In 1978, I took a sabbatical to serve as a Program Associate in the IDOE Program at the National Science Foundation in Washington, D.C. It was in Crystal City, a neighborhood in Arlington, VA, where we lived, that our second son, Rinaldo was born. During my second sabbatical, in the mid 1980s, I worked at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and we were able to experience living in Falmouth, MA, which was beautiful. I also joined Scripps Institution of Oceanography as a visiting scientist from 1993 – 1996 and continue to have an affiliation with Scripps as a research oceanographer.

Can you talk more about your involvement with Scripps?

After I retired from active teaching at SDSU, I connected with people who were working in Coastal Studies at Scripps. They offered me a part-time position to participate in meteorological programs as a research oceanographer. My research focus has been on the atmospheric marine boundary layer and its interaction with the ocean, conducting experiments in such places as coastal California and Oregon, the Gibraltar Strait, the Adriatic Sea and in Vladivostok, a city located in the Russia region of the Far East on the Japan Sea.

You have also co-authored a book on fog. Can you talk more about this and the fog consortium that you are now involved with?

About the time that I retired from SDSU, a book company approached a colleague, Darko Koračin, to write a book on fog. He asked me to join him, which made us co-editors on Marine Fog: Challenges and Advancements in Observations, Modeling, and Forecasting. Working on this book took about four years and after it was published, I was asked to join a fog group, a consortium of scientists based out of Notre Dame University.

Olivia: The people from this consortium are from all around the country and the world. It’s very impressive to see how science projects provide opportunities to bring people together towards a common purpose, from all different cultures, to explore complex challenges.

Why fog? What captivates you on this subject?

People get excited about fog. It’s an interesting challenge that interconnects and impacts many things. For example, we’ve received funding from the Navy Office of Naval Research. They are interested in fog because it’s a showstopper for them. Missiles won’t arm if they can’t see a certain distance, and most ships have extreme difficulty in the fog, and some can’t dock in the fog. That affects both the military and maritime transportation.

Clive, it seems as though you are still very active professionally.

Olivia: Believe me, he is still working! He is at his desk all the time.

You’ve been active as well, Olivia. Can you talk about your involvement with PFLAG San Diego County?

San Diego PFLAG is a great organization that provides support for LGBTQ+ people, their parents, families, and allies in San Diego County. I ran the scholarship program for 13 years, from 1998 -2011. I’m proud to say I improved the program from providing one scholarship with a small amount of money to 12 scholarships, and now they are at 20 scholarships. I became involved because my older son is a gay man, and this is an incredibly important organization. It was very touching to see these kids, some who were going to college, others who were graduate students, to be recognized as people who were wonderful human beings.

You are also involved with the Mingei International Museum, located in San Diego’s Balboa Park.

I have been involved with the Museum since 2006 in various capacities and now as a volunteer docent. The Museum collects, conserves, and exhibits folk art, craft, and design. The most recent exhibit parallels contemporary commercial products alongside examples of historical product development. It’s fascinating how the curators make the connections and intersections between the old and the new.

After 42 years in San Diego, why now have you made the decision to secure an apartment home in Parkview?

Olivia: Both of us have seen our parents decline and we started to think about our future. As you begin to age, you’re doing fine – and then at some point, you’re not. And you don’t know when that is going to be. We are living here in San Diego by ourselves. Our oldest son, Benton lives in Washington, just over the border from Oregon, so we started to consider Portland.

He had a friend whose parents lived at Terwilliger Plaza, which encouraged us to talk to people at Terwilliger and the more we learned, the more interested we became. We like the fact that it’s independent and not commercial, that it is a nonprofit and people are actively involved. It’s a great location, and we can use public transportation right up to our door.

Clive: Portland is a very nice big little city and close to our son.

You have visited and stayed in a guest suite at Terwilliger. How was that experience?

Olivia: We’ve had the opportunity to visit Terwilliger and stayed a couple of times. The people are just so wonderful. It was a very pleasant experience. We used public transportation the whole time we were there and had the opportunity to attend two of the monthly gatherings and met other people who are also moving to Parkview. During our last visit, we sat with all the people that will be living on the 8th floor. I felt so welcome. I’m not afraid to move, because there are people with whom we have so much in common. Really simpatico. Very fine people.

Clive: We will also be looking for fellow ballroom dancers in the community. We’ve done ballroom dancing for the past 10-15 years and will want to continue that when we move to Parkview.

Sounds like you are ready to seize the moment and make the move to Portland and to Parkview.

Olivia: Over a 42-year span we have accumulated a lot of stuff in our house in San Diego. We are ready to purge, and to do something completely different, in a new place. Ultimately what is important to us, is the people – the community of people at Terwilliger Plaza that we will be joining.

Think Joule