Diane Dunn Kahler
January 17, 1937 - November 5, 2020
CARLSBAD — Diane Wallace Dunn Kahler died peacefully on November 5, 2020, in Carlsbad, CA, at the age of 83. Diane was born on January 17, 1937, in New Haven, CT, to Elizabeth Roth Dunn and Philip Edgar Dunn.
She was raised on nearby Phipps Lake, and grew up deeply connected to the beauty and wildlife of her childhood woodlands. She graduated from West Haven High School in 1954. Diane received her B.S. in nursing, with distinction, from the University of Connecticut at Storrs in 1958.
It was while working as a nurse at Yale that she met her first husband, cardiologist Richard Lee Kahler, M.D. They married and had three children before her husband’s practice took the family to La Jolla, CA, in 1968.
While raising her children, Diane was a Cub and Girl Scout leader and taught many scouts (and their leaders) to camp, backpack, and canoe. Her outdoor skills and capacity for organizing group wilderness adventures could have been a full-time career in another life, but in La Jolla, these abilities simply made her a muchadmired mom.
As her children left for college and her first marriage ended, Diane enrolled at UCSD to become a Family Nurse Practitioner. In 1982, she began a full-time career at Kaiser Permanente, also becoming a Certified Diabetes Instructor and a Clinical Instructor in the UCSD/UCSF nurse practitioner/nurse midwife Masters Degree program. She retired from Kaiser in 2011. Diane also served as a volunteer CPR and Advanced First Aid Instructor for the American Red Cross.
Throughout her career, Diane continued to organize Colorado River canoeing and kayaking trips for friends and colleagues, introducing many of them to their first wilderness experiences.
She moved to Bristol Cove in Carlsbad in 1988 and volunteered extensively for the city. She was a founder of the Agua Hedionda Lagoon Foundation and a beloved volunteer docent at the Carlsbad Flower Fields. She was known as Diane Richards from 1991 – 2005.
In her 70s, Diane embarked upon a decade of intrepid world travel with her life partner, Steven Magnus Nelson of Vancouver, WA, who survives her. Together, they kayaked, hiked, camped, canoed, toured or river cruised across the globe, as far north as the Yukon Territory and as far south as the Falkland Islands.
She faced significant health challenges in her later years, but remained the determined, active and inspiring role model she had been throughout her life.
Diane is survived by her daughter, Sally Kahler Phillips (Hunter) of Beverly Hills, CA; her son Geoffrey Lee Kahler (Reini Winter) of Sandy, UT; and three grandchildren:
Davis Fisher Kahler, Alexander Mazieres Kahler, and Katherine Anne Kahler. Her eldest son, David Marc Kahler, M.D., predeceased her.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the San Diego Zoo Foundation. Diane was a lifelong supporter of its mission of education and species preservation, and would be deeply touched by your kindness.