He helps people locate missing loved ones for a living, and TV cameras captured him at work for a 10-episode series premiering at 8 tonight on WE (channel 128 on Dish Network, 260 on Direct TV).
Episode one involves a case from — no surprise — Oklahoma. It features Carolyn Funk from Grand Lake, who hasn't seen her daughter in 10 years. She is undergoing chemotherapy for leukemia and wants to reunite with her daughter and alert her about the disease.
"We shot that first episode on my birthday, and that was one of my favorite ones,” Dunn, 41, said in a phone interview from his home office in Fort Myers, Fla. "I'm extraordinarily sensitive to the word ‘cancer,' and when Carolyn called wanting to find her daughter, I couldn't get on the plane fast enough.
"Add to it the fact that she's from Oklahoma, and it was a done deal.”
Dunn, who has located more than 40,000 "unfindable” men, women and children over the past 18 years, graduated from Enid High School in 1985. He was a fullback on the Plainsmen's 1983 state championship football team.
"As I sit here in my office, the only things on my walls are a couple of reunion photos with celebrities, pictures of my children and a very large museum-size frame with my Enid jersey,” Dunn said.
"Enid is where I met my wife, Jennifer. We've been together 20 years. We have family in Enid, Pawnee and Oklahoma City, and we visit constantly just to get a fresh taste of Oklahoma.”
Dunn and his wife moved to Florida after they married just to get a fresh start on their own. They almost came home after spending a few weeks in Miami, but Dunn's father pointed out that Fort Myers would remind them of home.
Dunn and his family — now consisting of five sons and two daughters ranging in age from 3 to 18 — have lived there since. But he still calls Oklahoma home.
"Anybody I meet on my travels, I tell them I'm from Oklahoma,” he said. "That's where my family roots are, and that's where all my life-changing experiences took place.”
Dunn was featured on the cover of Entrepreneur Magazine in October 1989 for a scooter rental business he started. Through that exposure, he met a guy who helped people find long-lost family members. They started a locator business in 1990.
And the business took off after they helped reunite a family on "The Montel Williams Show.”
"The TV producer asked if we had an 800 number to put on the screen, and we didn't,” Dunn said. "We couldn't keep up with the calls at home, so we got an answering service. But they called to say that none of the doctors, lawyers or clients could get a call in, because we had over 11,000 messages.
"That's when I realized that if we tell true stories to the media, they will share them with people who need help. It's a beautiful circle to help everyone out.”
Dunn has made more than 500 TV appearances. He's been on "Good Morning America,” "60 Minutes,” "Dr. Phil,” "The View,” "The Early Show” and "Oprah,” to name a few.
"You name them, and we've either been on the shows or provided reunions for them,” he said.
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