Dale Durrwachter: Celebrating a Lifetime of Gratitude Toward Western
Alaska resident and retired educator, Dale Durrwachter grew up on an isolated homestead deep in the Washington woods west of Port Angeles. He felled, chopped, and harvested wood, tended large gardens and various farm animals, and built structures on land he owns today. With no running water, no electricity, no phone, and no radio, Dale, his four siblings, and his parents, experienced a self-reliant, subsistence lifestyle.
When he was six years old, an aunt and uncle saw something in Dale-an intelligence, a hunger-and they took him into their home and drove him several hours to attend school, exposing him to the outside world. After attending Crescent Consolidated School in Joyce, WA, his 5th grade teacher and her husband, the principal of Crescent Consolidated School, saw Dale as inquisitive and verbal, but unmotivated. Through their significant support and encouragement, Dale experienced firsthand the impact a great teacher can have on a student.
"Their support resulted in my desire to become a teacher and then a principal," Dale says.
Motivated and ready for higher education, Dale was prepared for academic success. The dream for advanced education-which had previously been unimaginable to him- came into sharp focus, and he decided to attend Western. Sharing his story of need and intent with two Washington State representatives resulted in Dale acquiring a well-paying summer job that he kept for six consecutive summers, allowing him to cover the costs of both his bachelor's and master's degrees. Dale understands that today it would be nearly impossible for a student to pay their own way through university solely with earnings from a summer job.
Dale lived frugally in a homestay near Wilson Library, which he describes as "the key to all knowledge." He loved his "house parents," his lodging, and his proximity to downtown where he plucked oysters from the mudflats. He appreciated his professor and mentor, Charles J. "Jerry" Flora. But most of all, Dale loved Western.
"Western is an important part of my life and a very positive memory," he says.
After graduation in 1962, he ventured to Fairbanks, Alaska and began teaching remotely through closed-circuit television, then went on to teach high-achieving 6th graders. His classes were informed by his resourceful roots, as he taught hands-on projects in addition to classroom lessons. His instruction included nutrition experiments with rats, building and operating a greenhouse, disassembling and rebuilding auto engines, and staging the operetta "H.M.S. Pinafore" (complete with a masted ship, which he and his class constructed in the gym). He worked his entire 36-year career in Fairbanks-first as a teacher and then as a principal-until his retirement in 1986.
In his retirement, Dale is an active Kiwanian and has traveled around the world several times. He spends about half his time under the midnight sun in Fairbanks and the other half in a retirement community in Arizona. When in Fairbanks, Dale raises a large garden and loves driving his 1964 Mustang with his antique car club-a Mustang that was first photographed in front of Old Main in June 1964.
Dale has shown his deep and lifelong appreciation of Western by establishing a Charitable Gift Annuity and by giving generously to the new electrical engineering, computer science, and energy technology building. Through his Charitable Gift Annuity, he receives guaranteed income for life and the remaining principal of the annuity will eventually pass to Western. The funds from Dale's annuity created the Dale A. Durrwachter Elementary Education Scholarship Endowment to support students at Woodring preparing for a career in elementary education.
For grateful alumni like Dale, a Charitable Gift Annuity is the perfect balance of income and legacy. And for a kid who didn't see a dollar bill until he was eleven years old, it's a pleasure to give back to the school he loves so much.
