Meet the Author

A perfect sapphire day in Paradise

Meet Dennis Dunn

Born in Seattle in May of 1940, Dennis Dunn went on to graduate cum laude from Harvard University in 1962, with a B.A. degree and a major in Romance Languages and Literature. He became a middle and senior high school French language teacher, and during this period he earned a Masters Degree in Romance Languages from the University of Washington.

He married the late Jennifer Blackburn Dunn in 1965 and fathered two sons: Bryant in 1969, and Reagan in 1971. Both boys are avid bowhunters and firearms hunters. Bryant currently owns and operates a very successful Outfitter/Guide Service in the back-country of Idaho. He specializes in elk and deer — bow or rifle, as well as in grouse hunting and flyfishing. Sun Valley Outfitters can be viewed on the web at: www.sunvalleyoutfitters.org

Intrigued with politics, Dunn left the teaching profession in 1970, when he was elected Chairman of the King County Republican Party. He served in that position for 6 years, and in 1976 he was elected as the GOP National Committeeman for the state of Washington. He ultimately rose to be a Vice-Chairman of the Republican National Committee, before finally resigning his various Party positions in 1983 and becoming a securities broker. By then, his attention to bowhunting had become a major avocation in life. In 1988, he moved to Vancouver, B.C., where he met Karen, who became his beloved bride in 1989.

A year before returning to Seattle in 1999, Dunn began pursuing actively his passion for opera, and he soon accepted appointment as the Northwest Regional Chairman of the Metropolitan Opera National Council. To this date, he still serves as a leader in that organization’s quest to find and promote gifted young opera singers onto the stages of the world’s opera houses.

He joined the Pope & Young Club in 1972, and he has been a Senior Member of that organization since 1985. In September of 2004, Dunn completed a 40-year odyssey when he harvested a male Alaskan Brown Bear on Baranof Island in S.E. Alaska and completed what has become known in hunting circles as the North American Super Slam: the taking of all 28 huntable big-game animals recognized by the Pope & Young Club. Although six other bowhunters had managed to accomplish that feat prior to Dunn, he was the first to complete the Super Slam barebow — meaning no pins, no sights, or other aiming devices. In short, his arrows were guided only by instinct.

Of the 29 Pope & Young species, 17 of Dunn’s original 29 have been listed in the Club’s records. Since the fall of 2004, he has added five more species to the records listings.

Dunn is a member of the following outdoor-oriented organizations: