Bryan James Dunne

He was born on July 12, 1960, in Ashtabula, Ohio, to businessman, Robert Wallace Dunne, Sr. and teacher, Nancy Anne Dunne (neé Bening).

Bryan was born with an insatiable, persistent curiosity. It cultivated in him a diabolical wit, an evergreen enthusiasm for adventure, and most importantly, an ardent love of people and their stories.

Perhaps unsurprisingly for the son of a schoolteacher, Bryan’s curiosity sometimes took on a traditionally academic flavor. As a young child, he was known to read the dictionary cover to cover, like a novel (to the chagrin of his brothers and amusement of his sister). Throughout his education and beyond, he devoured literature, poems, music, and drama from all genres - always mentally archiving his favorite quotes for later use. Friends knew that he was just as likely to throw out a passage from Hamlet as he was a Queen lyric when the occasion suited. While his bookish streak tended to put teachers and authority figures at ease at first, this was almost always to their great peril and near instant regret. Rules, after all, were a human construct made to be bent and more than occasionally broken. Bryan always maintained that “it is far crueler to bore a child than to beat him.” He attributed this sentiment to Jean-Jaques Rousseau’s educational treatise Émile, which was first published 1762 then promptly banned and burned that same year, earning the title a coveted spot on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. Rousseau doubtlessly had Bryan’s attention at ‘Prohibitorum.’

Readers will be shocked to learn that Bryan’s relentless curiosity did not come with an equal measure of caution. Bryan loved to take risks, grinning as he free-fell through life and sometimes literally through the air. His adventures began in the lake behind his childhood home, where he learned to SCUBA dive with a dubious set of oxygen tanks that were too heavy for his nine-year-old body to swim to the surface unassisted. Bryan was a collegiate high diver for Ohio Northern University from 1979 to 1981 before he transferred to the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1982. There, he became somewhat of an authority in the art of snow skiing backwards and met the love of his life: Kristan, a horse-loving girl from Louisiana with a funny accent and the bluest eyes.

Throughout his life, he would climb mountains, bicycle down volcanoes, jump from planes, and consistently be disrespected by the equines Kristan loved so much.

Bryan’s tastes were certainly eclectic, which directly translated to the endeavors of his career. Described accurately as a ‘serial entrepreneur’ by his youngest daughter, Bryan began his professional life as a disk jockey at a local radio station in college, where his casual knowledge of music became encyclopedic. From there, he responsibly shifted into insurance sales for aircraft after graduating college, decided the pilots had the more interesting gig, and got his pilot’s license instead. In 1989, he dutifully stepped into a role in the family rotational molding business that took him and Kristan from the idyllic mountains of Boulder, Colorado to the red-clay hills of Carrollton, Georgia. There, Bryan got exactly what he deserved, and his two daughters were born. In 2004, the family relocated to Pensacola, Florida where Bryan was a consultant for the plastics industry for several years.

Unfamiliar with the concept of leisure for leisure’s sake, Bryan’s hobbies tended to refuse to stay casual. A keen interest in fast cars somehow evolved into three stints of professional race car driving school and a garage equipped with all the trappings of a professional mechanic’s shop. An innocent enjoyment of playing in the dirt mutated into a land clearing enterprise with his eldest brother, complete with heavy machinery and snake-proof boots. Again, Bryan’s youngest daughter says it best: “when people ask me what my dad does, I ask them how much time they have.”

But nothing satisfied Bryan’s curiosity half as well as meeting new people and learning their stories. On every adventure, business enterprise, and even trip to lunch, he met friends and shared laughter with others. Bryan saw the good in people. He gave second, third, and sometimes fourth chances. He always wanted to know who people truly were. Human connection, rather than adrenaline or achievement, was the real prize he sought throughout his life, and by that or any other measure, he was fabulously successful.

While there are any number of lessons one can take from this fully lived life, take at least these few: Be curious. Take risks. Make connections.

He is survived by his wife, Kristan; his daughters, Taylor Dunne and Meghan Dunne (son in law Ryan Piscopo); granddaughter Carmela Dunne Piscopo; sister, Leslie Skidmore (brother in law, Rick Skidmore, nieces and nephews: John, Amanda, and Justin); brother, Bob Dunne Jr; nephew, Steven Robert Dunne (niece in law, Jenna and grand-niece, Cydney); niece, Brittany Dunne (sister in law, Becky Dunne). He is preceded in death by his parents, Nancy and Bob Dunne Sr; his brother, Bill; and sister-in-law, Cyndy.

A memorial service will be held at Bayview Fisher-Pou Chapel in Pensacola Florida on Friday June 26, 2026 at 3pm with visitation at 2pm.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to:

All Gods Children Ministries (PO BOX 65 West Springfield, PA 16443)

Michael J Fox Foundation (Michaeljfox.org)

Woodbine Church (5200 Woodbine Rd Pace, FL 32571 woodbinechurch.org)

Or your favorite charity or church