Robert Dozono

Robert Ryoji Dozono was born on October 22, 1941 in Katsuyama (Winner’s Mountain), Okayama Prefecture, Japan, the second child and oldest son of Asazo Dozono and Yoneko Nadyne Dozono.

Though he spoke about growing up in Japan as largely positive, treated well as the oldest son of a high school principal, he also experienced the fear of bombs and food shortages of World War II. A bright child, he was a rulebreaker who made his elementary teachers cry. He spent summers in Kyushu with his extended family, playing with his cousins. At 13, he and his younger brother Sho journeyed with their father by ship from Yokohama to Portland to join his mother and sister Keiko. Lacking English language skills, he entered the 4th grade at Buckman Elementary and moved onto 7th grade the following year. He attended Benson High School where he wrestled and served as Senior Class President. This enduring role meant he helped to organize his high school reunions up until the most recent 60th reunion in 2022 (delayed a year by the pandemic). In 1960, between his junior and senior year of high school he and three friends hatched a plan to hitchhike through Europe. Funded with money he had saved berry-picking at the Fujimoto farm in the summers, the adventure led to camping on Supreme Court Justice William Douglas’ lawn in D.C. before figuring out how to get themselves across the ocean, landing them on the front page of the Oregonian.

Robert initially went to Oregon State University where he was a math major on the wrestling team, but switched to engineering, then architecture before dropping out. He joined the US Army and spent time in Germany where he learned to ski, something he enjoyed for decades. When he returned from the service, he enrolled at University of Oregon as an architecture major and switched to art after auditing a class by visiting artist Herman Cherry, who encouraged him to pursue art as a degree.

He met his wife Noriko in Portland in 1968 on a double date where they were not matched up with each other. They moved to Brooklyn and married in 1970 while he was a graduate student at Pratt Institute. Robert was Jacob Lawrence’s last student at Pratt. In addition to school, he and his friend Sam built out the first art gallery in SoHo. After earning his MFA and expecting a child, he and Noriko returned to Portland where he eventually established himself at Portland Community College teaching basic design, watercolor, and life drawing, ultimately chairing the art department. He was highly active in his union, working to secure health care benefits for part-time faculty. He was a fixture at the Sylvania Campus, known for his messy office and devoted students until he retired in 2001.

He and Noriko had three daughters and built a house in Milwaukie. He often said that he worked hard not to be famous, something he saw as a negative influence on art- and sense-making. He was a long-time member of Blackfish Gallery until he left in 2021. He was often credited as being a founding member, which he always corrected as not true. He made skillful watercolors, complex oil paintings over garbage, portraits, still lifes, and large scale landscapes with a variety of mediums. In 2009 he produced a book of his art that included his own writings and those of friends, colleagues, and students called Accumulation 1963-2009.

Robert took his family on annual camping trips to forage for morels on Mt. Hood, road trips to Yellowstone, and skiing on many Christmas Eves. Each year he cultivated a large vegetable garden, and became a pescatarian in the late 80s. In the mid-80s, his brother Sho was part of an effort that brought Fuji TV to Oregon to make a TV show called “Oregon Kara Ai” (“From Oregon With Love”) that drew elements from their family story. He planted the garden that appears at the farm, and had fun as part of the TV crew of what was a popular show in Japan. He played basketball poorly but enthusiastically, did art projects in elementary and jr. high schools, summer workshops at Menucha in the Columbia River Gorge, fished with friends at many rivers and lakes, and in the ocean with his daughter Stacey on annual trips to Long Beach. He carved snow in the International Snow Sculpure Contest in Sapporo, Japan with his friend Rick, canoed through the Grand Canyon with a crew of friends, experienced Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos with Rick and enjoyed it so much that he was spurred to plan a trip to India and Nepal with his family, which was followed up by a family trip to China to follow the route of the Silk Road. Food was always central and any remembrance of a trip was largely a recounting of what he and others ate. He shuttled his kids to countless sports events and activities and continued to support their endeavors throughout their lives. He enjoyed a game of catch. He traveled throughout the NW with Stacey and Leslie for softball and later to Sarasota, Vancouver B.C., and Japan to cheer Jody on in ultimate frisbee. He and Noriko cared for his mother Yoneko in her later years and his great aunt Rose near the end of her life. They have also been secondary supports for their grandchildren Iris and Clyde for many years.

Robert was an endlessly curious problem solver, had exacting, high standards, and deeply cared for those around him. He was steadfast and reliable, stubborn and opinionated, both meticulous and messy. He supported many people with his care and attention and will be greatly missed.

He is survived by Noriko, his wife of 54 years, his kid brother Sho, his children Leslie (Jason Thibedeau), Stacey (Staci Imwalle), and Jody (Jade Schey) and his grandchildren Iris, Clyde, Lena, Kenji, and Jamie, his cousins, many nieces and nephews, and his pseudo-son, Charles (Heather Siegfried). He was preceded in death by his sister Keiko Nakata.

Robert’s memorial will be held at the Amo De Bernardis College Center at Portland Community College’s Sylvania Campus (12000 SW 49th Ave Portland, OR 97219) on Saturday, June 21st at 1pm. No flowers or gifts please. Robert did not want to dictate if or where people made donations in his memory, so his family requests that you vote, make and/or collect art, support people you care about - visit, write a card, make a call or a meal - or donate to a cause for which you care deeply.