William Dorman Obituary (2022) – Sacramento, CA

William Ansley Dorman
April 26, 2022
Sacramento, California – William Ansley (Bill) Dorman Feb 23, 1941 (Santa Fe, New Mexico) – April 26, 2022 (Davis, California).
We are deeply saddened to write of William Ansley (Bill) Dorman’s death of an aggressive cancer on April 26, 2022. He was surrounded by family and friends in his last weeks— sharing memories, telling jokes, watching basketball games, toasting to sunsets, and saying goodbyes.
Bill loved the fog of his hometown in Pacific Grove, Calif., where he spent most of his childhood. Bill grew up with a father who was an aspiring artist and a mother who was an aspiring writer. After his parents’ divorce, Bill remained in the Monterey Bay Peninsula with his two siblings, strongly influenced by his mother’s love of books and passion for ideas. Bill was not a strong student in his early years, but at the encouragement of his 8th grade English teacher, he discovered his love of writing when the teacher suggested he enter a writing contest sponsored by the local Kiwanis Club, which he won. He went on to become the student body president at Monterey Peninsula College in 1959, deepening his love of public speaking, where he combined content, humor, and critical thinking. He began his undergraduate studies in journalism in 1961, at California State University, Sacramento, where he met his wife, Pat Dorman.
Bill obtained his master’s degree at UC Berkeley, and began his career at CSUS in 1967, teaching in the journalism and government departments. Bill was a scholar-activist with a deep commitment to critical thinking. He was a talented teacher and mentor and was well-known for his courses on critical thinking and “war, peace, and the mass media.” He wrote extensively about foreign policy in a range of publications including the Columbia Journalism Review, and co-authored the book, “The US Press and Iran,” in 1990, with Mansour Farhang, to great critical acclaim. Bill was invited to lecture within the U.S. at Stanford and Washington State University, Princeton, Rutgers, UC Berkeley, and abroad in Kuala Lumpur, Istanbul, Singapore, and Rome. He was twice named to deliver the John C. Livingston Annual Faculty Lecture, and in 2002 received the most prestigious honor of the California State University system, the Wang Family Excellence Award, which recognizes CSU faculty and staff for exemplary contributions to student success. Until January of 2022, Bill worked with and served as the President of the Friends of the Library at CSUS.
Bill dedicated his life to fighting for social justice within and outside of academia, including revealing biases in the media, addressing structural racism in educational settings, ensuring students of color had increased access to well-paying jobs in mass media/journalism, addressing historic racism and its impact on Quinault Indian fishing rights, among many examples. He was deeply influenced by his involvement with the free speech movement and civil rights movement.
Bill always described meeting Pat as the best thing that ever happened to him. He and Pat raised their two children, Kym and Chris, in Sacramento — creating a highly political, humor-filled, engaging, and international home environment with strong family and community ties. During their nearly 60 years of marriage, Bill and Pat built their extensive community through their activism, at gatherings with friends and family around the dinner table, campfires, in their backyard, and in their travels throughout the US and Europe. Bill was deeply committed to his family and friends in countless ways and was always ready to support them in achieving their dreams. He relished his travels with Pat and his fly-fishing adventures. Bill leaves behind an extensive community of family members, longtime friends, colleagues and students, including his wife Pat; his children Kym and Chris; his daughters-in-law Sonja Mackenzie and Antonette Greene; his sister Teresa Kuhn; his sister and brother-in-law Bonnie and Josh Folick, and Olive Dorman; as well as his four beloved grandchildren, Harper and Calder Dorman Greene, Amaya and Elan Dorman Mackenzie. Bill will be forever missed, and life will not be the same without him.
Instead of flowers, please consider donating to a fund to support the CSUS Friends of the Library and a scholarship in Bill’s name at CSUS—he would be honored. https://gofund.me/cac486a2