| Graduation Year | Class of 1977 |
| Date of Passing | Apr 04, 2017 |
| About | Dwight was born in Seattle a couple days before Christmas on December 23, 1958. He was born a bit early and needed to stay in the hospital for a few days before eventually joining his parents and three brothers who had relocated to Bellingham a few weeks earlier. As a pre-teen Dwight often joined his brothers in neighborhood (Alabama Hill) sports/baseball games and enjoyed “hanging-out” with the older kids. This was especially true in the mid-1960s when his family spent many weekends and many summer days at the family cabin near the C-Shop in Birch Bay. In Middle School, Dwight became interested in art and spent many hours drawing/creating on his light board and producinging acrylic/resin home décor items. He also enjoyed honing his writing skills. Dwight was a quiet, reserved kid who liked to read and study. Dwight was always a superb student and excelled in every academic area—from elementary school (Roosevelt) through his time at Whatcom Middle School and especially at Sehome High School. He was always interested in people in different parts of the world and spent his final high school semester studying in Bolivia as a Rotary International Exchange Student. Two months before Dwight died he was able to have a wonderful phone conversation with his Bolivian friend (his Bolivian Brother!), Julio, whose family served as Dwight’s host during the time he lived in Bolivia. As Dwight completed high school he was awarded a Gannett Newspaper academic scholarship that allowed him to attend WSU where he studied business administration and accounting. When he graduated from WSU we recall his one small regret was the one “B” he received in a course. He graduated with high honors and we remember when the graduation ceremony took place the president of the university actually walked across the stage to shake his hand as he received his diploma. He later earned his CPA and MBA and followed this up with other advanced degrees during his time living in Texas. After college graduation Dwight was offered a job in accounting at ARAMCO, a large international oil company in Houston, Texas. After three years in Texas Dwight was ready for a cooler climate and moved back to the Pacific Northwest and went to work for the Federal Home Loan Bank in Seattle. Dwight was a bank examiner of financial institutions in Washington, Alaska, Hawaii, and other areas in the Pacific. This experience led to Dwight working for the FDIC with a couple years in San Francisco area before being called back to Washington, DC for his last 18 years with the agency. Dwight’s work led to identifying the "Banking Crisis" that was to negatively affect the US economy for a decade. He worked tirelessly to get our government leaders to take action to minimize the pain the crisis would cause millions of people. He wrote a book, entitled American Betrayal, about the banking crisis. Dwight and his wife, Frances, have two sons who lived with them in Seattle, Walnut Creek, and McLean, Virginia as Dwight's career took them from Seattle to California and then to the east coast. Dwight was very proud of his sons. His eldest son, Michael, is a high tech senior manager in the Seattle area. Michael once earned a prestigious award as the most promising Marine in his boot camp class at Camp Pendleton. Michael and his wife, Joy, have two pre-teen boys named Jayden and Jordan. Dwight's younger son, David, is a government analyst in Washington, DC. David enjoys outdoor adventures such as biking and skiing. One of his favorite hobbies was debating (bantering) with his father on a number of every day issues. Dwight and his wife left Washington, DC three years ago to return to his hometown of Bellingham. Dwight spent time catching up with family, working in his basement shop, and creating artwork of pop stars and famous personalities. He also took up tennis and enjoyed meeting friends and playing tennis with friends he made at the local tennis club. Dwight enjoyed seeing people and places in distant lands and told us recently that he enjoyed every trip to Europe and the Mid-East and that he had once read that as people are dying they often have last thoughts about the people they have met and the places they visited. In Dwight’s last few months he wanted to make it back to Amsterdam (he was there recently for just a couple days), to visit the Philippines (his wife’s native land), and to walk the streets of Hong Kong. After Dwight was diagnosed with brain cancer last August his condition deteriorated swiftly and he wasn’t able to travel at all but commented on his great memories of the travels he was able to undertake over the past few years. Dwight always thought about other people’s feelings and made extraordinary efforts in his last weeks to make his friends and family comfortable with his situation. He never said “why me?,” he never complained, and always did as much as he could to focus the attention on those around him. This is how we will remember Dwight. |
