William Colin Dobson's Obituary
William Colin Dobson was born February 10, 1931, in Germantown, PA, and passed away October 18, 2010, in Dallas, Texas. After graduating from Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, he served in the Marine Corps as 1st Lieutenant during the Korean War. During his professional career, Bill was a Regional Sales Manager for Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company. He founded and was a principal of Van Buren & Dobson, an insurance brokerage firm based in New York City. Later he was an investment services professional at a major New York investment firm. A New Yorker at heart, Bill had a passion for arts and literature instilled in him by his talented family and which he passed along to his children and grandchildren. He loved choral music, and once sang with the Downtown Glee Club. He enjoyed theater as well, having studied it in college and performed in many community theater productions. He was a teller of tales. His long-story jokes were the delight of his family and friends. Bill adored the works of Shakespeare and was a devotee of the legendary fictional sleuth, Sherlock Holmes. We will miss Bill’s extraordinary sense of humor, his wit, his charm, his kindness, and his tireless dedication to the daily completion of the New York Times crossword puzzle, a feat which humbled us all. He is survived by his wife and companion of 44 years, Marie, his sister, Evelyn Mandis, his three children, Dana Dobson, Lori Dobson-Mulhern and William Bevans Dobson, and five grandchildren, Colin (23), Jessica (22), Ian (19), Sean (18) and Evan (11) and his nieces and nephews. Memorial Services will be held at the Restland Funeral Home on Friday, October 22 from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to a favorite charity or to the American Boychoir Scholarship Fund, 19 Lambert Dr., Princeton, NJ 08549, in memory of William Dobson, whose grandson, Evan William Mulhern, performs as soprano in the prestigious organization’s touring choir.
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