Upon joining the faculty at UC Davis, Hap (Dunning) initiated a course in water law, which became his passion and the focus of the rest of his professional career. In the late 1970s, he served as executive officer of the Governor’s Commission to Review California Water Rights Law. He later served on the California Water Commission and the Bay Delta Advisory Council, and he sat on the board of directors of several nonprofits, including among others The Bay Institute of San Francisco, the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation, and the Tuolumne River Trust. Much of his scholarship dealt with the application of the public trust doctrine to water rights. In its landmark decision on that topic in 1983, the California Supreme Court cited the papers from a major conference Hap organized at UC Davis in 1980. (Dunning also served on the Water Education Foundation’s Board of Directors from 1997-2014.)

Read more about his legacy:

• Tuolumne River Trust: Honoring Harrison “Hap” C. Dunning: A Legacy of Environmental Leadership