For 26 years, James "Jim" Beatty took care of the pets and critters of Sunnyvale as the sole practitioner at the Sunnyvale Veterinary Clinic on El Camino Real. It was a passion that he carried with him throughout years of service in the armed forces and moves that took him thousands of miles away from his Pennsylvania home. It even became the family business.

"All the family spent hours there fixing the place up," says Amy Beatty Hubert, his daughter. "When he was on call, he would bring animals home and we'd keep them in the bathrooms."

Beatty retired in 1992 and sold his practice, moving to the Sierra foothills town of Somerset with his second wife, Carol. It was there that he died on March 1 at the age of 70.

Beatty was born on Feb. 16, 1934, in Pittsburgh, Pa., and grew up in the rural town of Kittanning. He remained there until he went to college at the University of Pennsylvania, where he trained in the veterinary sciences and obtained his degree.

He didn't get to practice right away, however. After joining the Army as a meat inspector, he and his wife and four children moved around the country. They eventually settled in the Bay Area after his assignment to Moffett Field in the 1960s. Then, Beatty was finally able to concentrate on his veterinary career. "He always loved animals," Hubert says. "As a child, he knew that's what he wanted to do."

Beatty started with a practice in Santa Clara. He was one of the founders of the United Emergency Animal Clinic in 1973, which employed a then-revolutionary idea. Each veterinarian took emergency call every night in a noncompetitive model.

But when the Sunnyvale Veterinary Clinic went up for sale, he purchased the practice and began his involvement with the local animal community. Hubert says her father always treated guide dogs for the blind free of charge as his way of giving back.

He also indulged his love of carpentry with various improvements to the building over the years—the same projects that involved his whole family.

"We retiled the floors over the years, and he remodeled a lot of the building himself," Hubert says.

This interest followed him after his early retirement at the age of 58. When he and his second wife moved out of the area, they built their own house. Beatty designed the structure and did much of the building himself, and he kept up with the maintenance until he was diagnosed with a form of cancer called myeloid dysplasia. Hubert says the slowing down that occurred was very unlike her father.

"At least with retiring early, he had time to do everything he wanted," she says.

Beatty was an avid traveler, mixing his trips with his interest in history, particularly involving American presidents. "He went back to a lot of places where his ancestors were buried," Hubert says. The one thing he didn't have the chance to do was follow the trail his grandfather took in Alaska, but Beatty still completed enough adventures to fill an autobiography he wrote for his family. "He learned how to use a computer just for that," Hubert says.

Family was a cornerstone for Beatty, who was adopted from an orphanage. "His parents went to get a girl, but they couldn't help but leave with him," Hubert says. Beatty has been buried next to his family in Pennsylvania.

In addition to his wife and daughter Hubert, Beatty is survived by two other daughters, Andreina Coldiron and Beatriz Pirofalo, and a son, Gregory Beatty. He also leaves behind six grandchildren. The family asks that memorial donations go to Guide Dogs for the Blind, P.O. Box 3950, San Rafael, CA 94912.

Dahl was mother to more
than just her own children

Going purely by genetics, Theresa Dahl had only four children. But according to her daughter, Dahl's maternal instinct stretched far beyond her family.

"All of our friends, she was mother to them," says Christina Victor. "All of her grandkids, she was grandmother to all of their friends."

Dahl, a 27-year resident of Sunnyvale, died on March 2 at the age of 83. She was born in England and brought to the United States as a baby, spending time in a New York orphanage. In her adulthood, she raised her children in Redwood City, where she also worked as a nanny for more than 20 years.

She moved to Sunnyvale to be closer to her daughter, and upon retirement, her activities revolved around her extended family, which included four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

"She was the most open, caring, nonjudgmental person," Victor says. "She was ready to do anything at any time for anyone."

In addition to Victor, Dahl leaves behind a son, Eric Dahl, and two daughters, Alison Dahl and Ingrid Abberton. Services were held at the Redwood Chapel in Redwood City.