How it all began: Steve Sr & Pat Dunlap
The Some Tuesday story can't be told without talking about Steve Sr and Pat Dunlap, Captain Steve's parents. So, this website wouldn't be complete without a proper tribute to them.
The late Captain Steven James Dunlap Sr lived a life of service to his country as a Naval Flight Officer for the E2 Hawkeye radar plane. Aboard which he served two cruises in Vietnam on the USS Coral Sea and the USS Constellation. He was a devoted husband, a loving father and grandfather, and the owner of the original Some Tuesday (read about the origin of the name "Some Tuesday" here).
The late Dr. Patricia Leigh Riley Dunlap was a remarkable woman. During an era where society decided that women were either beautiful or smart, but not both, she was both. An intellectual, she dedicated much of her life to education, achieving a bachelor's and later a Ph.D in history, she taught as a college professor for 20 years. Pat had firm convictions and was determined to make the world a better place. She marched for women's rights and gun control, served multiple terms as president of the nonpartisan League of Women Voters, and even temporarily relocated from her home in firmly blue Maryland to swing-state Virginia to knock on doors and work the phones for the 2008 Obama Campaign. Pat was a fiery woman who fought for what she believed in, she was a loving mother and grandmother, and devoted wife to Steve Sr.
Pat and Steve met on a blind date through some friend at a Virginia Tech formal dance in January of 1964. As family legend recalls, Steve took one look at Pat and fell head over heels for her. Disoriented, he overdid it. Hot-shot Steve annoyed Pat the whole night and she left thinking he was obnoxious. Luckily for him, she had committed to two dates and with his second chance at bat, Steve hit a grand slam.
The two fell for each other that night and Pat returned to William & Mary abuzz with excitement. They wrote each other daily, sometimes more than once, as they worked through the whirlwind of early love. They married in December of 1964 and shared a beautiful life together for 58 years.
A few days later, courtesy of the Vietnam War draft, Steve left on his first cruise with the U.S. Navy. Over the next decade, they lived in 5 states with 4 transcontiental moves and by 1976, they had 3 children: Steve Jr., Tricia, and Matt.
In 1997, Steve and Pat begrudgingly moved to Maryland, following the Navy's Hawkeye program to the Patuxent River Naval Air Station. At heart a Virginian, Steve briefly contemplated telling the Navy to "pound sand." But southern Maryland was a boater's paradise. Always an optimist, Steve saw and opportunity and, after some lobbying, he finally got his boat. He Christened her (you guessed it), the Some Tuesday.
Some Tuesday and her Captain owe everything to Steve Sr and Pat. Steve passed away in his home in Virginia on November 6, 2022 and Pat on July 9, 2024. Their ashes were combined and scattered half off of the bow of Some Tuesday off the coast of California, and half in a beautiful, peaceful meadow on the Some Tuesday Farm in West Virginia.
Pat and Steve are dearly missed by their family, and their legacy lives on through their children Steve Jr., Tricia, and Matt. And their grandchildren Annie, Seosamh, Hank, and Carter. As well as through the Some Tuesday, Some Tuesday Farm, and upcoming Some Tuesday Ranch.
We love you Steve & Pat, Mom & Dad, Gaga & Pop. We'll meet again Some Tuesday.