John Dahlem, the record-setting explorer and former principal of Kennedy, Loara and Western high schools in Anaheim, has died at the age of 81 after battling cancer, it was reported Monday.
Dahlem died Friday, according to the OC Register.
Dahlem lived an amazing life full of adventure, trotting to the most far-flung and dangerous spots on all seven continents while also remaining tethered to a life of community engagement, earning plaudits as a teacher, a decorated coach and school administrator.
Among Dahlem’s many impressive accomplishments was completing the “Explorer’s Grand Slam,” reaching the North Pole and South Pole and the summit of the highest mountains on all seven continents.
Dahlem and his son Ryan climbed Mt. Everest together in 2010 when Dahlem was 66, the newspaper reported, making him at the time the second-oldest American to scale the world’s highest mountain.
Dahlem was head wrestling coach at Loara High from 1969-84, a time in which his teams won 10 league championships and a CIF Southern Section championship. He is in the Orange County Wrestling Hall of Fame, the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and the California Wrestling Hall of Fame, served as CIF-SS president of the council from 2004-06 and as an advisor to CIF-SS officers.
Born in Santa Monica, Dahlem attended Santa Monica High School and Oregon University, where he played football for the Ducks. He was also Vietnam veteran who received a Bronze Star.
“I picked up my masters at UCLA in Latin American history, and then it was time to go into the Army,” he told the Oregon alumni newsletter. “I spent two years in the Army, including a year in Vietnam where I was a company commander. I spent a year there during the Tet Offensive. I ran boats for the Army as a boat company commander. I came back from there, and always wanted to teach kids so I got into education.”
He moved to Southern California and started teaching.
“Some of my students … said they’d like to climb Mt. Whitney,” he told the Oregon alumni newsletter. “It’s the highest mountain in the continental United States. We got together, and took some of my former students and climbed Mt. Whitney.”
According to the Register, Dahlem ran in the Los Angeles Marathon five times and the Long Beach Marathon three times. With his wife Sioux, he ran the 5K in Huntington Beach’s Surf City Run on July 4 while in the second year of his cancer battle. The couple finished first in their age group.