Bridget McColl Dobson

1938-2024

Bridget Dobson was the last grandchild of America’s first Socialist congressman, Victor Berger, and a direct descendent of Aaron Burr. More notably, as a prolific soap opera writer, she was widely recognized for single-handedly revolutionizing the television business, daytime and nighttime.

From the 1960s until the 1990s she and her husband, Jerry Dobson, wrote “General Hospital,” “Guiding Light,” “As the World Turns,” and “Santa Barbara.” Their shows won multiple Emmys.

Bridget McColl Hursley grew up in Thiensville, Wisconsin and graduated with multiple degrees from Stanford University in California. At the start of freshman year, she met Jerry in the bookstore and let him carry her new books all the way, clear up to her dorm on top of Mount Everest. He was transformed. He said it didn’t matter that her books weighed more than a Sherman tank. She instantly became his “invincible joy.”

At Stanford, Bridget was celebrated for her trademark creativity and quirky intellect. Her Western Civilization final exam included a question about the causes of the Dark Ages. She wrote an 11-page answer from the point of view of a chicken. For Wallace Stegner’s Creative Writing class she wrote about the problem of birth control from the point of view and in the language of Chaucer’s Wife of Bath. These pieces were read to the entire student body.

The first year that women were allowed to do so, thinking she could find greener pastures, Bridget applied to Harvard Business School. For some reason, she completely “forgot” to inform her parents. As Bridget’s mother tore the acceptance letter into shreds, her father kept saying, “Don’t worry, Doris, let her go. She’ll flunk out.” (A sweet pair, some were heard to say.)

Well, Bridget steamrolled Harvard at three dates a night. (During her one year, more men failed their classes than in any other year.) Bridget’s own grades earned her the honor of attending an on-campus opera with JFK.

Five years after the Sherman tank books, Bridget and Jerry finally married. She helped create and write “General Hospital” while Jerry worked on his farm and looked over her shoulder. The day she told him to quit breathing down her neck and sharpen a Ticonderoga was the day they became a writing team. With Bridget doing all the work and Jerry kibbitzing, the world began to take notice. The folks from “Dallas” and “Dynasty” stopped by to steal her methods. Almost every nighttime show began to look and sound like Bridget’s soaps. “Santa Barbara” was the touchstone everyone had to watch. Tom Stoppard stopped in one night, stayed for hours, and picked her brain as she picked his.

Years later, the very first thing Bridget wrote when she officially retired, was a musical titled “Slings and Eros,” about Mark Twain’s dislike for Shakespeare. It ran in LA’s Globe Playhouse for weeks. Bridget’s creative energy then transitioned to art—her paintings were featured in multiple museums, from Milwaukee to Madison, and Charleston to St. Louis—and the Walter Wickiser Gallery in New York City.

Somewhere in there two kids were raised, and the whole family moved to Atlanta. The Dobsons discovered for the first time real human beings—very nice people—and they fell in love with everyone.

Bridget built a home, “Descante.” Took three years. Trying not to exaggerate, some of her neighbors and new friends thought Bridget’s house made the old Woodruff Coke mansion next door, the cream of Southern architecture, look like a Quonset hut.

Bridget and Jerry continued to travel until a year ago. She died peacefully at home on Tuesday, January 3, 2024. She is survived by her husband, Jerome Dobson, and their daughter, Mary Dobson and close to one hundred million fans in just about every corner of every country on dear Mother Earth.

A service and reception to celebrate Bridget’s life will be held at 2 p.m. on Thursday, January 18 at H.M. Patterson & Son-Arlington Chapel, 173 Allen Road, NE, Sandy Springs, GA 30328. In lieu of flowers, Bridget loved the Tunnel to Towers folks: Tunnel to Towers Foundation, 2361 Hylan Boulevard, Staten Island, NY 10306 or www.t2t.org.