On August 30th, 2011, Paul Dunbar passed away after fighting cancer for 2 years. Below is Paul's obituary, written by Jean Vaux.

More than a carpenter. More than a fireman. More than a jewelry store owner and photographer. More than a father, a husband and a friend. If these weren’t enough roles for a lifetime, over the past 27 years, Paul Dunbar of Cedar Falls was also "Fritz" to over a half million kids around the country through his 90-minute school assemblies. Unusual quiet came over his student audiences as he would tell them stories of other kids just like them. The stories hit home as he spoke about wearing masks, feeling alone, making choices that affect a lifetime, and how potentially harmful activities they might be considering, or had chosen, played out for other kids. Standing ovations were not rare. Fritz was a listener, a learner and a friend to teens, helping them to acknowledge their problems and feelings, to reach out for help and to get their lives on track. Kids told him things they had never told another soul. Many threw away their drugs. Some said he saved their lives.
Dunbar poured his life out to them, answering every letter, every email, and every phone call. Sometimes he would accompany kids to the help they needed. He calculated that he had spoken to at least 500,000 people in his journey and said he would keep talking to kids until God called him home.

When diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer in 2009, he continued traveling and giving assemblies between chemo and radiation treatments. He wouldn't hesitate to tell kids about his cancer and that even though he stopped smoking cigarettes 27 years ago, he wished he'd never started. On Tuesday, August 30 at 7:05 a.m., he fulfilled his passion and his promise, taking his last labored breath in a hospice room. Just a few days earlier he had told his daughter, Jennifer (Bill) Horton of Grundy Center, that he felt he was wasting time being there because he couldn’t do anything. He wanted to get home and get busy. It must have been hard sharing time with a half million kids, but Jennifer said, “He was worth sharing.”

Dunbar was also father of Stephen Dunbar of Cedar Falls and another son, Richard, who passed away in 1989. Richard was the one who first called his dad “Fritz”, which later became his identifying nickname to teens.

Born in Dubuque, Iowa on January 7, 1936, he was adopted as an infant by Leo and Mary Dunbar, of Cedar Falls. He grew up in Cedar Falls with a sister, Catherine, and, as a young man, Dunbar developed many lifetime relationships. He graduated high school from Our Lady of Victory Academy in Waterloo and completed studies at Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California.

In 1957, Dunbar joined the Cedar Falls Fire Department. He also worked as a professional wedding photographer and was contracted by Sartori Memorial Hospital in Cedar Falls to photograph newborn babies. In 1963, he married Sara Cool and they raised their three children in a newly-developed, family-friendly neighborhood on the west side of Cedar Falls in a home he had built in 1959.

Upon the sudden death of his father in 1965, Dunbar left the fire department to take over the family business – Pfeiffer Drug at 309 Main Street on the Parkade in downtown Cedar Falls. He eventually changed the pharmacy to a jewelry store and then a gift store, renamed as Dunbar’s Gift Shoppe. As a local businessman and community member, Dunbar was active for a number of years in the Cedar Falls Lions Club and the Cedar Falls Civil Service Commission.

A supporter of The University of Northern Iowa athletics, Dunbar traveled as a photographer with the football team during the Stan Sheriff era, filming the games. He worked at the home games, keeping defensive statistics and ran the clock for men’s basketball games and wrestling for several years. He also worked to help raise money to build the UNI-Dome.

Known by many friends for his humor and practical jokes, Dunbar was, in fact, “The Mummy” of an old Cedar Falls urban legend following a 1975 Halloween Masquerade Party at St. Patrick’s Church. Speculation of the mummy’s identity has lasted for years, partly due to Dunbar’s carpentry talent that elevated his shoes several inches and his talent to play the part so well.

Bob Justis, President/CEO of the Greater Cedar Valley Chamber of Commerce and long-time announcer of UNI football and men’s basketball, said his experiences with his famed humor started with Dunbar’s UNI days when he would get Justis laughing right before he had to announce. “We learned early on that we both loved to laugh. We took it upon ourselves as a mission in life to try to get the other one to laugh harder. Sometimes we’d laugh till we cried.”

“He loved having fun and always made us laugh whenever we saw him over the years. He always had a joke to tell,” said Justis’ wife, Nancy, former UNI Assistant Athletics Director for Media Relations.

“I have so much respect for what he was doing in his later years. He literally dropped everything to help teens,” said Bob Justis. “He was one-of-a-kind.”

In 1980, the life of this kid-at-heart took an unexpected turn while watching a news story one evening after work. The TV reporter covered a Cedar Rapids high school assembly given by an undercover detective in the Vice and Narcotics Unit in Newark, New Jersey. In the reporter’s interviews with students afterward, one teen admitted his own involvement in drugs and the prevalence of them in school. Dunbar’s daughter, then a high school senior, confirmed the same prevalence at her school. The next day, he called the TV station and asked for information about the speaker, David Toma.

Soon, he was on the phone with Toma to bring him back to Iowa. Dunbar organized a committee to help and in 1982, over 20,000 teens and parents heard Toma over a two-day event at the UNI-Dome. Dunbar was beside him off stage, listening to kids and getting an earful. He got more involved with drug and alcohol abuse prevention in the Cedar Valley. He started a local chapter for concerned parents called Families in Action and helped pass a city ordinance against the sale of drug paraphernalia. He was also invited to meet with Nancy Reagan, who was promoting her “Just say No” campaign in Iowa. He met with Toma at other Midwest towns and they talked with kids together. In 1984, Dunbar decided to go face-to-face with teens and closed his store to begin speaking to teens at his own assemblies like Toma. He never looked back; his sole focus was on helping kids get off drugs or preventing them from starting in the first place. As recently as this spring, he was speaking to his second generation of teens, some whose parents had heard him when they were youth.

Nicole Thomas, Dunbar’s office manager of the last seven years said, "I have never met another individual with as much passion and focus as Paul. He would frequently tell me that he’d lain awake the night before thinking about a particular student or problem that needed addressing, but his lack of sleep never slowed him down. Watching him battle cancer while still reaching out to teens the last two years has been inspiring and good reminder to me to keep doing what God calls you to do despite your circumstances."

Dunbar’s voice is now silent, his assemblies are finished, but the message lives on in the book of teens’ letters he self-published in 2009, titled the same as his website: Real Kids, Real Life.

Thomas helped him compile and edit the book. Dr. Suzanne Freedman, a psychology professor at The University of Northern Iowa, wrote the chapter introductions for topics such as Alcohol, Drugs, Family, Friends, Depression and Suicide, Self-Injury and Eating Disorders, Wearing a Mask, Positive Choices and Success Stories.

“It’s not my message, it’s the kids’ message,” Dunbar said, following the book’s publication. “It gives a voice to what kids are really experiencing first hand. Every school, parent and teen in America needs to read this book.”

In the Final Thoughts section of the book, Dunbar addressed young people and adults with words that he would leave as a final legacy:

“To the young people who have read this book, please know that you are not alone in the frustrations you deal with on a daily basis. Even though their circumstances may look different than yours, thousands of other kids feel just like you do. If you are struggling with an addiction, self-injury, depression, or just feeling overwhelmed with all that is expected of you, please get help. Find a parent, teacher, counselor, youth pastor, or other adult you trust and tell them how you are feeling and struggling. Make them understand that your problem isn’t just a passing phase and that you really need help to overcome it. Remember that the choices you make today will positively or negatively affect you for the rest of your life.

“To the adults who have read this book, please listen to the kids in your life. No matter how they act or what they tell you, your presence, listening ear, and opinion of them is vitally important to them. Let them know you are there for them whenever they need to talk and listen without judgment when they do. Take the things they tell you seriously and get them help, professional or otherwise, if they need it.”

Dunbar had a memorable, multi-faceted life that touched multiple populations, at home and away.

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Mission

Real Kids Real Life exists to empower teenagers to make smart, healthy choices. We help kids examine their own lives and understand the emotional and psychological consequences of drug and alcohol use, as well as other forms of harmful behavior. By sharing powerful, real stories that illustrate how choices affect our own lives and the lives of others, we raise awareness of life-impacting issues facing teens. Our program provides a safe place for kids to openly discuss the challenges they face and helps them get the support they need.

For 25 years, Paul Dunbar has been listening to our teenagers, examining the issues, and helping them think through the choices they are making and their real and potential outcomes. He equips students with the courage, confidence and common sense to dream, set goals, and make wise choices.

Real Kids Real Life is a unique, multi-faceted program which uses a combination of assembly presentation, small group and individual follow-up sessions, and on-going support to address issues that most concern teenagers in the twenty-first century.

Real Kids Real Life was featured in a Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier article. Click here to view the article in pdf format.