Allison Dunn, frail from chemotherapy, woke up two Fridays ago and announced she was going to work.
The Logan High principal had missed about a week, and that was too much.
Steve Dunn drove his wife to school. He had to carry her up the stairs.
Seated in her leadership chair, her oxygen tank nearby, Allison Dunn got down to business. She tackled the usual crises. Gave advice. Smiled at whoever walked through the door.
It would be the last time.
Today, students, faculty, friends and family are gathering at 12:30 to celebrate her life in the place where so much of what she valued unfolded — the school.
"The kids loved her. She had a special human relations skill of bringing people together, so the staff and faculty at Logan High grew to love her very quickly," Logan Superintendent Allen Lowe said.
Allison Dunn was rooted in Logan. She attended Logan public schools. Kicked up her heels on the Hi-Lo's drill team. Sang beautifully. Accomplished "every conceivable everything" at Utah State, childhood friend Annette Haws, a Murray High English teacher, remembers.
She was a sponge for knowledge and would weigh facts with a sensitive moral compass, Steve Dunn said. She graduated magna cum laude with a major in English and minors in psychology, French and dance. She had wanted to become an attorney or judge. Instead, she fell into teaching. It's where she felt at home.
"She didn't have to have center stage. She harmonized with people around her and made them sound better," said Haws, who coached Logan High debate teams with Dunn.
As an Aggie, the then-Allison Gates met Steve Dunn, who later would teach in USU's health, physical education and recreation department. They married in the Logan LDS Temple in 1973, the same year she earned her bachelor's degree and landed her first teaching job, at Wahlquist Junior High in Weber. Later, she set her work aside to raise the couple's four children.
But life wasn't always easy. And Allison Dunn weathered life's difficulties by seeking knowledge. School seemed to ground her.
She and Steve lost their first infant son, Steven Jonathan, to a congenital brain defect. Shortly afterward, "she just picked up her handcart and moved," Haws said. She earned a USU master's degree in library science in 1976.
Allison Dunn put her new knowledge to work in 1986 at Logan's Wilson Elementary. She moved over to Logan High in 1990, teaching English and coaching the debate team, which won the state championship. She took an assistant principalship at Mount Logan Middle School in 1995, the same year she received her administrator's certificate. The next year, she returned to Logan High's administration, and was named principal of the 1,700-student school in 1999.
Between the jump from teacher to principal lay another personal hurdle.
Twenty years into her marriage, she learned Steve, a former bishop, was gay. She found the book, "Loving Someone Gay," that Steve had been secretly reading. In the margins, he'd penciled in his thoughts he'd never shared with anyone.
Allison's information-gathering instincts led her to a Salt Lake City counselor, then a support group. The couple came to terms with their relationship.
"At one point, we thought it would be a good idea to divorce. But we couldn't. We wanted to continue to love each other . . . make sure our relationship was healthy, and we could model for our kids that no matter how difficult the issue, no matter how horrendous the problem, we can attack it in a way no one is hurt, and with grace and love," Steve Dunn said.
"They taught us about tolerance and love. They modeled wonderful behavior. They demonstrated a love we don't typically associate with marriage. They were devoted. And in the end, I think their relationship was probably much closer than most married people," Haws said. "It was a beautiful thing to watch."
Then came the cancer.
Allison Dunn was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1996. By February 2000, the cancer had spread to her bones, liver and lungs.
Despite the pain, she never complained, Haws said. Not in chemotherapy, not in a bone marrow transplant, not when doctors had to drain her lungs over and over.
"She had a wry sense of humor," Haws said. "We laughed through the bone marrow transplant. We told cancer jokes."
Allison Dunn never hid her battle from her faculty or students. When her hair fell out, she wore scarves. She attended school musicals, cheered the Grizzlies to a state football championship. She laid out her hopes and expectations for the Class of 2000 in a commencement address.
She strived to create a tolerant and safe place for all children. Teenagers would come to her office, slump in a chair and sob under the weight of their worries.
"She recently said she felt she had found herself. And she wanted to do this job and wanted to live for it," Steve Dunn said. "She just was not ready to die."
Dunn's last day of school spanned just three hours. She left early to have her lungs drained. But that time, she didn't recover.
Tuesday, students were told of their leader's failing health. That afternoon, they learned Allison Dunn had died.
The faculty gathered after school to grieve. Counselors offered crisis support. Students talked about their feelings and built a memorial of flowers and teddy bears at the foot of the school's grizzly statue. The flag was lowered to half-staff. A scholarship fund was established in her name through the district's foundation.
"This whole community loved Allison Dunn," said Logan High counselor and wrestling coach Jim Peacock. "The greatest accomplishment she had was her capacity to love."
E-mail: jtcook@desnews.com