Mike passed away on Saturday, May 26, 2007 in West Palm Beach, FL. He was born May 17, 1943, in Washington, DC, to the late Robert A. and Juliane Dillon. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his son, Michael Dillon. He is survived by his brothers, Robert A. Dillon, Jr. and his wife, Page, Dennis "Bo" Dillon and his wife, Diane, Matt Dillon and his wife, Linda; and his sister, Martha Zunich and her husband, Larry.
A remembrance from classmate Jon Wisman:
It's always a shock to learn of the death of an old school mate, albeit sadly one that fate compels us to endure with ever-greater frequency. Mike Dillon is gone!!! Noooooo!!! Although I haven't seen him since shortly after high school, I presumed in a more-or-less semi-conscious manner that we'd run into each other eventually.
Although Mike was a year behind us, many of us played sports and partied with him. And Bobby Thomas, Mike and I undertook a big study-avoidance project together. Somehow we got stung by the boating bug, especially the fast boating bug. We decided to build hydroplanes. We secured blueprints and began building one in each of our respective basements. It was a tremendous amount of work, but we were impassioned with the challenge and the promise of speeding over the local waterways. When one of us would run into a snag, we'd all join in to work it out.
We eventually completed the construction, bought big motors, and hit the water. We'd race about at Seneca, in front of the Monument and on the Severn. Especially great fun was following big boats and jumping their wakes. In one such adventure on the Severn, Charlie Bradford was crammed into Bobby's boat and the hit a wake so big that they wound up holding a up steering wheel jarred off the dash. In another, we were crossing Key Bridge when Mike's inadaquately-attached craft flew off his car roof, barely missing a car behind. We had some crazy times together. But then there was college and life-busyness, and although I had the privelege of weeing Bobby several times, usually at class reunions, Mike, not being a part of our class, was not within my organized encounter space. The last time I saw Bobby Thomas was at one of Linda Buhl's great picnics, we talked about getting together with Mike, but... Oh damn!!!
