In November 1978, 12-year-old Shaun Dooley and his family fled the Iranian capital of Tehran under darkness.
Life had grown hard under martial law in the Middle Eastern city as riots broke out against the decades-old authoritarian rule of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi.
Notified by Lockheed, his father’s company, the family arrived at the Mehrabad Airport at 3 p.m. for the last five seats. But they didn’t board the British Airways airplane until 3 a.m.
The aircraft, packed with evacuated British citizens, flew beyond the building where his father Don Dooley had worked. It rose beyond the international Community School of Iran, where instructors taught the boy how to express himself in a daily journal. Within minutes, the plane was miles away from the flat roof of their old house, where they saw smoke billowing from protests downtown.
Weeks later in Kenesaw, Georgia, they saw telecasts of student protesters, an occupied U.S. Embassy and American hostages. The images weren’t the Iranian neighbors and land they knew, seeming almost as if the pictures were beamed from another world.
About the author
A 22-year veteran of the Air Force, Vincent T. Davis embarked on a second career as a journalist and found his calling. Observing and listening across San Antonio, he finds intriguing tales to tell about everyday people. He shares his stories with Express-News subscribers every Monday morning.
The long flight from Iran is one of Dooley’s brushes with history. Recently, he shared his stories with staff from The Arc of San Antonio who visited him at home, observing social distancing and wearing masks, of course.
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Dooley, 54, takes part in the Adult Life Enrichment Program of The Arc, an organization that serves people with developmental and intellectual disabilities.
“The Arc is wonderful,” Dooley said. “It’s such a special place. I’ve never felt more comfortable since I’ve been there.”
Toni Dooley, 78, said her son has flourished since he began attending the program nearly four years ago. Initially, however, that wasn’t the case. The first time he entered the building, Shaun Dooley had a sour face.
“Mom, what are you doing?” he recalled telling his mother. “Are you trying to get rid of me?”
He continued to frown as the assistant director gave them a tour of the center. But his spirits began to lift when he learned that the assistant director was an Atlanta Braves fan just like him.
“The Arc has been a blessing for us,” his mother said.
From the moment her son, then in first grade, was identified as having an intellectual disorder, Toni Dooley was determined that doors would never be closed to him.
She and her husband, the late Don Dooley, were adamant that he would get the same chance at an education as their other two children.
“The big thing is to treat everybody with great respect,” she said, “and give all kids the opportunity to be the best they can be. He had the opportunities and people accepted him for who he was.”
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As the three children grew, Shaun Dooley’s older brother, Don Jr., took up football and his younger sister, Erin, gravitated toward dancing.
Shaun Dooley’s passion was clogging. He was 7 when he took up the dance that originated in the Appalachian Mountains. The quick, floor-striking steps took him to the Clogging Machine, a group that performed in Fourth of July parades and at nursing homes.
In the spring of 1979, his tapping feet took him to the world stage. He danced with The Little Generals for President Jimmy Carter’s daughter Amy at her birthday party in the White House.
Family members said he enjoyed the event, as well as photos of the group in the newspaper.
“It was just part of life for him,” his mother said.
When he wanted to play in the high school band, special education administrators thought it would be too stressful. The band director disagreed. He welcomed Dooley, who played the trombone for four years and received an award as the band’s best supporter.
At the age of 20, he turned his focused toward swimming. It was a sport he learned as a child in Iran and continued in the United States, where he became active in Special Olympics.
When the family was living in Mississippi, his father coached him at the pool at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, training for an hour per day, three to five times a week. It paid off; he qualified for the 2003 World Games in Dublin, Ireland, the land of his father’s ancestors.
Ten family members went with Shaun to Ireland to cheer him on. The family still watches the video of the event. Swimming on the relay team, he’s seen falling behind in the third and fourth laps. He pulls his goggles off and surges forward, his relatives’ chants of “Go Shaun Go!” ringing out as he races to a first-place win in his leg of the relay.
He continued participating in Special Olympics swimming when the family moved to Alabama and when they moved to Texas in 2017.
Ten days after the move to San Antonio, however, Dan Dooley died.
Weeks later a letter arrived from Alabama Special Olympics officials — Shaun Dooley had been selected to compete in the Special Olympics USA Games in Seattle, Wash.
“That had to be your daddy fixing that so you could go,” Toni Dooley recalled telling her son.
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In July 2018, he swam the 100-meter medley and 100-meter free style at the USA Games, winning his second gold medal.
These days, Dooley uses his athletic skills to play point guard for The Arc’s basketball team.
“‘Don’t be a ball hog,’ coaches say,” Dooley recalled, smiling, so he now makes sure, he said, to pass the rock to his teammates. He’s finding that’s fun, too.
He’s not fretting over when The Arc will reopen — he says he’s learned patience and he knows they will open when it’s safe — but the first question he had for staff members when they came to visit he made it clear what’s uppermost in his mind:
“When are we going to play basketball again?”
vtdavis@express-news.net
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