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"Rotary Brings Hope"

PERSONAL

Dick was born on January 1, 1926 in Randle, Washington, spending most of his early years in Tacoma, Washington. He graduated from Lincoln High Schoo1 and attended University of Puget Sound where he earned his CPA. Dick originally went to Bellingham to work in the Bellingham shipyards. He began working as an accountant in 1948, and in 1964 founded the accounting firm that is now Metcalf Hodges in Bellingham.

Dick served in the U.S. Air Force as a Cadet during 1944 and 1945.

Dick married his wife, Shirley Cummings on October 7, 1950 in Tacoma, WA and have two daughters Cheryl and Sandra. They have resided at Neptune Beach in Whatcom County for 50 years.

Dick passed away Sunday, July 10, 2005 at home. He was 79. He was a devoted husband and father, and loved spending time with his family.

Dick enjoyed building houses, construction, ditch digging, playing on his backhoe, garage sales, and motor homing. He loved trailblazing, animals especially his dogs, Bo, Aurora, and Sucia

COMMUNITY SERVICE

Community Service has been high on Dick's priority list, served as:

  • President and Director of Bellingham Chamber of Commerce.
  • Whatcom County Development Council
  • Mount Baker Area - Boy Scouts of America and Northwest Chapter of Washington Society of Certified Public Accountants
  • Director of the Young Men's Christian Association and St. Joseph's Hospital Advisory Board; Member of the Order of the Arrow and has been awarded the Silver Beaver from the Boy Scouts of America in recognition of outstanding service to the youth program.

ROTARY

Dick was a member of the Whatcom County North Rotary Club where he had perfect attendance for 32 years, 8 months, and 11 days.

During Dick's year as District Governor there were 63 clubs in District 504 going from Everett to Prince Rupert. Two new breakfast clubs were chartered during the year. Effective July 1, 1987 District 504 was split into two districts. 504 retained 32 clubs with nearly 1.700 Rotarians and the new District 505 started with 31 clubs and 1,900 Rotarians.

Several highlights during Dick's year included:

  • A visit from Rotary International President, M.A.T. Caparas in which M.A.T. spoke to the Bellingham and Vancouver club's.
  • Rotaract District Meeting and a tour of Expo.
  • The District was also honored to have Philip Lindsey, Rotary International General Secretary as M.A.T.'s representative to our district conference in Bellingham.
  • Our District has an outgoing Group Study Exchange with the West Indies District 405, a Rotaract Exchange team of 20 from District 917 (Perth, Western Austra1ia) and have some 60 plus youth exchange students from and to many different countries around the world.

Dick and Shirley have stated several times what a wonderful year it was to serve as District Governor! meeting so many nice people. They encourage others, if the opportunity arises, to also serve their district as Governor.