Cheryl Odom Dogali

Cheryl Dogali, 65, 206 S. MacArthur Ave., died Monday, March 22, 2010, after a lengthy illness.  Cheryl, a beloved English professor at Gulf Coast Community College, had an extraordinary talent for touching the lives of her students.  Her classrooms were filled with more than textbooks and papers; with her constant encouragement, she created a nurturing environment that transformed her students with the promise of what each of them could become. Each semester, her classes filled up almost the day they were offered. Her students loved her, and she loved them. She believed that she was the luckiest person on earth to live her passion of teaching.  Cheryl was a cherished colleague and friend in the Division of Language and Literature, as well as throughout the college.

After a long career in business, Cheryl returned to college later in life, graduated from Gulf Coast and then went on to get her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English in the early 1990s from Troy State University. At Gulf Coast she won the coveted award of Club Advisor of the Year in 2001 for her work with the college’s honor society, Phi Theta Kappa.
Cheryl  was a wife, mother, and grandmother, as well as a friend to many. She is survived by her loving husband, Emil “Dee” Dogali, and by her children, Paul Dogali and his wife, Cheatta, of LaFayette, Louisiana, Wendy McKeown of Los Angeles, CA, and Andy Dogali and his wife, Hope, of Tampa Bay, FL, and by four grandchildren, Chris McKeown, David McKeown, Nicholas Dogali and Scott Dogali, and by two great-grandchildren.  She is also survived by her brother, Mike Odom of Panama City.  
The funeral for Cheryl will be on Saturday, March 27, at 2 p.m. at the Kent-Forest Lawn Funeral Home Chapel.  The family will receive visitors one hour prior to the service at 1 p.m., at Kent-Forest Lawn Funeral Home, 2403 Harrison Ave., Panama City, FL.  Additionally, the family will host a celebration of Cheryl’s life to which all are invited on Friday evening, March 26, from 5 p.m. – 8 p.m. at the Shaddai Shrine Temple, 1101 West 19th Street, Panama City,FL.  
The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Faces of Courage Foundation, Inc., 4115 West Spruce Street, Tampa, FL  33607. (www.facesofcourage.org)
Kent-Forest Lawn Funeral Home
(850) 763-4696

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