Originally from Minneapolis, MN, Doris Dawdy's first professional aspirations were very different from her present occupation as a researcher of water rights and other historical issues in the American West. In her late-teens, Dawdy played the clarinet, saxophone, and violin in addition to conducting her own orchestra. She attended the MacPhail School of Music in Minneapolis, Minnesota to train as a professional music instructor, but left the school just before graduation to pursue other interests.

Dawdy began her career as an author by documenting artists in the American West. Her most notable works include Annotated Bibliography of American Indian Painting (New York: Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, 1968), and the three volume set Artists of the American West (Athens: Swallow Press/Ohio University Press, 1980, 1981, and 1985, respectively). She also edited two journal accounts: A Voice in Her Tribe: A Navajo Woman's Own Story, Based on Navajo Activist Irene Stewart's Letters to Anthropologist Dr. Mary Shepardson (Menlo Park, CA: Ballena Press, 1980), and The Wyant Diary: An Artist With the Wheeler Survey in Arizona, 1873 (Arizona and the West, Autumn 1980).

Her primary interests, however, are in the fields of politics and political science, with a particular focus on analyzing government agencies and their operations. She attributes these interests to her experiences as an aid to a Minnesota senator and as a lawyer's public stenographer. Through exposure to her husband's work, Dawdy added another dimension to her research interests: water rights in the western United States. Dawdy's extensive research into water quality issues, particularly in California, has given her over thirty-five years of experience and expertise with which she writes her books. Her diligent efforts to follow and report on trends in water management arise out of a concern over water use in the West, especially in California.

Dawdy continues to write about a variety of topics pertaining to the American West. She recently published George Montague Wheeler: The Man and the Myth (Athens: Swallow Press/Ohio University Press, 1993), a critical look at Wheeler's explorations in the American West from 1869-1879, and has three more books in various stages of completion. The soonest to be released is an examination of the history of the Army Corps of Engineers, which is being published by the University of Ohio Press. The second book discusses water and land issues on Navaho/Hopi reservations and is currently under review. The third book is a work-in-progress that serves as a follow-up to Congress in its Wisdom: The Bureau of Reclamation and the Public Interest, Studies in Water Policy and Management, No. 13 (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1989), by further examining the actions of the USBR.

Doris and her husband, prominent research hydrologist and consultant David R. Dawdy, currently reside in the San Francisco Bay Area. Further bibliographical citations for Doris Dawdy are located in the Who's Who in American Art, Who's Who in the West, World's Who's Who of Women, and Contemporary Authors.