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Published May 7th, 2014
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Cliff Dochterman - Citizen of the World - Moraga Citizen of the Year
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| By Sophie Braccini |
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| Cliff Dochterman in his home at the Moraga Country Club Photo Sophie Braccini |
Cliff Dochterman defines citizens, as opposed to residents, as people who take responsibility for themselves and for their community. The former university administrator lives by his principles, so it is only fitting that his town has recognized him as the Moraga Citizen of the Year for 2014.
It is impossible to talk about Dochterman without mentioning Rotary's fight to end polio. As president of Rotary International in 1992-93, as co-chairman of the committees that chose the project, as an organizer and as a participant in the immunization campaigns, Dochterman has been a key player in the global effort. When Rotary first undertook this humanitarian mission in 1979 there were 350,000 cases of polio in the world; 150 countries had new cases every year. Thirty years later there were about 1,000 cases and today only three endemic countries remain. This effort epitomizes Dochterman's life from the time he joined the Boy Scouts, at age 12, to today.
Dochterman was raised by a modest family during the Great Depression; he remembers that everyone was poor back then in Findlay, Ohio. His mother was a schoolteacher, his grandfather a Methodist minister. Findlay was the town of the Marathon Oil Corporation. "Every year, the company had a giving campaign, and one year, I must have been 6 years old, they asked my mother if they could give my brother and I $5 to join the YMCA," recalls Dochterman. "I used to wonder how somebody could be so rich that they would give $5 for the Y to someone they didn't know. And I often think back that this was my first idea of what civic duty, and responsibility to others, is all about."
Responsibility is a key word to Dochterman. "It is a life changing experience to know that you can do something for somebody you don't know," he says. "Individuals can make a difference; you don't have to go to the middle of Africa. Two blocks from here there might be two seniors dying of loneliness, people who are hungry, kids who have drug problems, or someone who is being abused. There are problems we can identify everywhere and things we can do."
There are many stories about Dochterman, from the most local to the most global. When asked why he never hesitates to take on tasks of a global magnitude, he says it might be because of his naivety. Where obstacles and difficulties would overwhelm others, he just sees a need and applies his talents, reaching out to others, organizing, motivating and making a difference.
Dochterman was honored by the town of Moraga on May 2 during a dinner supported by the Moraga Valley Kiwanis, the Chamber of Commerce, Saint Mary's College, Contra Costa Times and Lamorinda Weekly.
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA