Carla Jo Dakin died on September 8, 2006. She is survived by her husband Ed Perez, two daughters (Elena and Dorie), and grandchildren.
I didn’t know Carla Jo at all well at Oberlin. Years later we met each other at the Unitarian Church in Fresno and became fast friends. We hiked a lot in the Sierras and met for meals and movies. Carla Jo knew she didn’t have long to live and she made the most of every moment. She hiked, she spent weeks meditating at Spirit Rock and she and her husband Ed took train trips all through the country. Carla Jo was an attorney and worked for farm worker rights. At the last she shone with goodness. I was with her when she died peacefully and with grace. I miss her very much. (Submitted by Whitney Rimel)
From the Fresno State Collegian, October 17, 2014: “The Women’s Resource Center is hosting Lunafest, an annual feminist film festival, today at 6:30 p.m. in honor of community member Carla Jo Dakin. Dakin, who started this event at Fresno State, died in 2006 from breast cancer. This is Fresno State’s eleventh year hosting Lunafest. Its mission is to spotlight the work of a diverse array of talented women filmmakers with ‘intelligent, funny and thought-provoking themes,’ according to the festival’s website.”
Tamme Haskell
I was in Dascomb with Carla Jo our Freshman year. For some unknown reason the two of us purchased a 3 tier cake from Gibson's and proceeded to eat it ALL. Thank god for indoor plumbing! Carla Jo had it all: smart as a whip, a great flute player (she could have been in the CON), compassionate, fun, excited about life, etc. Twenty some odd years ago I visited her home in Fresno and met one of her daughters, who was studying the cello. At that time she was a judge in the county court (I believe). I was devastated to learn of her passing.
Nancy Glasser (Toney)
I went to France with Carla Jo the summer of our junior year with the very wonderful Simon Barenbaum. I remember she was physically in France and loving it but also pining for her Oberlin boyfriend, who was in a motorcycle accident, compounding the sadness. I clearly remember her singing "Leaving on a Jet Plane" over and over. She was so much fun!
Alan Firestone
I had the great pleasure of sharing a Jazz Show on WOBC with Carla Jo and Warren Bacon. Carla Jo had an incredibly sexy radio voice. It always induced severe cognitive dissonance when I thought about her using that voice as a judge in California.
George Spencer-Green
Carla Jo was a Politics and Government major at Oberlin. I got to know her when she was dating my friend and future roommate Tom Volk. We had lots of adventures together at Oberlin, including a run for the student senate (with Ellis Gesten) as the VOICE party. We even painted the Rock on Tappan Square as part of our "campaign". Carla Jo got the most votes, and as a "reward" for this achievement, she was appointed "secretary" of the Senate (hopefully, times have changed at Oberlin). After graduation, under the auspices of the Hershey Organization, she went to Ghana to teach French at a girl's school for a year. After returning to the US she married Tom, and I was the best man in their wedding. They both returned to Ghana for the following year. Upon their return to the US they lived in Cambridge where CJ worked at the Harvard Law Review while Tom finished law school at Boston University. I visited them both many times there while I was in medical school in New York.
I saw less of CJ when they moved to California, where Carla Jo attended law school at the University of California, Davis and graduated in May 1977. However, we still stayed in close contact, and would exchange long, written Christmas card messages full of our various goings-on, a practice for which I used to deride my mother for doing with her distant friends. After graduation, she moved to the Central Valley of California, where she pursued her commitment to social justice and fair labor relations practices. Beginning as an Investigative Hearing Examiner with the Agricultural Labor Relations Board, and later an attorney for the California Labor Commissioner, she became an Administrative Law Judge for the State of California employment development department, from which she retired in the early 2000s. She married Ed Perez in Fresno in 1980 and they had two beautiful daughters of whom CJ was very proud: Elena who has a BA in Anthropology from the University of Cal Berkeley and a Master's of Science in Traditional Chinese Medicine; and her second daughter, Doris "Dorie" who has a BA in Political Science from University California Berkeley and who is soon defending her dissertation to earn her PhD from University Cal Merced in Anthropology and American History.
CJ had an avid interest in exploring different cultures, different religious practices and their history, which led her to many interesting travels throughout the world. She was an avid hiker in Yosemite and other wilderness areas of California. CJ pursued her love of music and played the flute in the Fresno Community Band and in Les Flutes Enchantées. She was a community activist and engaged in many marches and boycotts, and belonged to several community organizations for various social and political causes.
When Carla Jo was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer in 1996, she explored meditation to contemplate her illness and its impact on her family. She attended several 10-30 day silent retreats over the years at Spirit Rock, a Buddhist meditation center in northern California. As a very spiritual person, Carla Jo found this meditation time to be invaluable. As she said “I've been teaching myself to let go of fear; meditation is a way to look at it and face it.”
I last saw CJ at the wedding of her oldest daughter Elena (photo) several months before she died. She was her usual warm, vivacious, and charming self, and we had a wonderful time chatting and reminiscing about old times. She died Sept 8, 2006, surrounded by loving family and dear friends, leaving a rich legacy of generosity, curiosity and a passion for justice for all. She is missed by all who knew her.
Carol McLaughlin (Fishwick)
Nicely written George. How did Carla Jo have time to be so involved and play the flute?
I met CJ when we were both freshman cheerleaders, a crazy way to get involved but we were outside and met the "Walts" of the world. We remained good friends throughout our Oberlin years. I travelled to Liberia about a year after graduation and then went to visit CJ in Ghana where she was teaching. When she returned she brought me an African Gray parrot (it was legal then). Ako was my best buddy through graduate school and learned to shout "All power to the parrots!" to all dog walkers on Commonwealth Ave.
Carla Jo, Tom, and I left Boston together in a caravan. She and I chatted in the U-Haul to Pittsfield and worked to keep each other awake. I never was able to visit her in California. What an accomplished woman!
Alan Firestone
We visited Tom and Carla Jo and got to meet their parrot. I just remember it screaming Mahula!