Obituary

CHICAGO, IL — Gail A. Dahlstrom, age 66, passed away peacefully with her husband and son by her side on February 4, 2020 after a year and a half battle with Glioblastoma brain cancer. She was born July 22, 1953 in Chicago, Illinois to Carl and Jeanette Westberg. She married Karl J. Dahlstrom May 7, 1977 in Chicago, Illinois before they moved out east and lived in Etna, NH for 30 years. Gail was a Senior Healthcare Consultant at HDR in downtown Chicago, and she and Karl lived in the Bucktown neighborhood starting in 2015. Her son Lukas, his wife Maria, and their daughter live nearby.

Gail spent her professional life committed to healthcare management and quality facilities planning. Her longest tenure was with the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center where she most notably was the “Move Activation Coordinator” when the hospital moved up the hill to Lebanon. Her last position was Vice President of Facilities Operations - a testament not only to her competence, but also to how well she could navigate a field long dominated by men. Gail also had a short period of work in Boston, Mass. as the Executive Director of The Quality Management Network at the IHI. And her last role was with HDR Consulting Group in Chicago as a Senior Healthcare Consultant. She was highly regarded for her attention to detail, vision, group communication skills, and most importantly her loving care for her coworkers and all the patients they served.

Outside of that work, Gail was spending a lot of time contributing these skills and her care to two organizations she loved. One, her church, New Community in Logan Square where she volunteered on the Building Committee and served regularly, and second at North Park University where she was an active member of the Board of Trustees. Gail was a percussionist in high school, where she specialized in the xylophone, and continued to listen to a lot brass and jazz as her disease disrupted her life more and more. Gail and her husband Karl where a regular tennis doubles team and mom had a well-respected crosscourt forehand, but in the last seven years, she could mostly be found taking long swims in Iron River, MI at the family’s cabin during her leisure time.

Should friends desire, contributions may be sent to one of the organizations that Gail and Karl cared deeply about: Open Arms Ministry at New Community Church or the Lou and Jean Malnati Brain Tumor Institute at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Friends are invited to the funeral service on Saturday, February 22, 2020 at 1:00 pm at New Community Covenant Church 2649 N. Francisco Ave. Chicago, Illinois.