Dwight Alva Andrus

Evy says: Dwight Andrus, Dad, where do I begin. He was a man a great intellegence and education but had no common sence. Although a teacher by trade, we were both frustrated when he would attempt to help me with my homework. He always corrected ones sentece form and word pronunciation. Swearing was a pet pieve of his. He use to say "with all the words in the English language, surely you can find a better word to express yourself".

He loved to "putter" at many different things but rarely finshed what he started. He was a poor "do-it-yourselfer" but thought he was competent. His idea of fixing things was to use a wire hanger and duct tape as a temporary measure but he never got around to the permanent fix. He was always bumping his head or hurting his hands, blood and scabs always.

He was always quite a procrastinator. Mañana he'd say (tomorrow). Why do something today I can put off until tomorrow.

He loved the sea and dreamed of sailing around the world with the family. His idea was that each family member would train themselves on at least two areas of sailing, to allow for a backup when necessary. At each port the "men" would pick up some day jobs to make a little money to buy supplies and then we'd move on. He always seemed to own a sail boat, wooden of course, but it rarely made it out of port. In his later years he lived in Laconner in an A-frame house right on the salt-water channel. He new everyone who owned a boat there and they would honk and wave passing his house. He was a natural Santa Clause. He even played Santa Clause for the Laconnel Christmas Boat parade.

He was proud of my intellegence and accomplishments but was quite old fashioned in his toughts about women. A wife shouldn't work, should have his dinner waiting for him when he got home, etc. I wish he would have tought me to fish and how to sail. But such things wouldn't even occur to him. He wanted all boys to have a sports team. Each time mom was to give birth, he only had a boys name picked out. Naturally he wanted to name the first after his brother Ernie. Then it was Daniel Lee. Tami and I were both suppose to be Daniel Lee.

He was stubborn. The most stubborn man I'd ever met, that is until I met my husband. He was generous to a fault. He was always helping out a family member or just someone down and out. Usually he got burned by it but it never seemed to stop him from repeating the experience. My mother would always make extra for dinner because frequently someone would "just stop by" at the right time and he's ask them to join us for a meal.

I believe I got my looks from my father as well as his intellegence and desire to travel. And thankfully, I got my common sence from my mother. I also got from Dad a desire to help others around me. I find I'm very accepting of others who are different and very forgiving understanding where the other person is coming from. Unfortunately I also inherited his procrastination, his mañana attitude, but I'm working on it.

I love my father very much dispite his flaws and miss him intently. I still find myself wondering what he would think of me and what I'm doing.

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In 1941 when World War II was declared both Dwight and his brother, Ernie joined the Navy to serve their country. Dwight married Jean Dooley in 1945 at the end of the war. He went back to school, probably on the GI Bill and received his teaching degree. He and Jeannie have a son and five daughters.

Dwight and Jeannie had a large family and they worked very hard raising them. They moved from California to Washington where he was completed his education and became a College Professor. Dwight was a handsome man and looked like he could be a Sea Captain rather than a Professor. He then changed jobs to teach at a middle school and to counsel the students. He and Jeannie divorced later in life and Dwight remarried. He died of cancer at the age of 68 in 1993. Jeannie resides in Colorado near one of their daughters and her family.