Charles Dwight Underwood

Charles Dwight Underwood

Charles Dwight Underwood was born in Enterprise, OR on Dec. 5, 1929. Here where he grew up, he played, fished, experienced the Lord and searched for treasures with his brother David.

Near the start of WWII, Dwight, his father, his mother, his sister, and his brother moved to Walla Walla, WA. Dwight’s dad was stationed at the Walla Walla Army Air Base; called, B-17 Base under US Corps of Army Engineers.

Dwight attended school at Berney (for 7th and 8th grade) and WA-HI (for freshman and sophomore years). During this time his dad was transferred to the Hanford Project in Richland WA. Dwight, his mother, his sister and his brother stayed in Walla Walla through 1946, where they lived with his grandma.

The two best brothers Dwight and David became welders and small mechanics. They found that motorcycles interested them. They became very familiar with motorcycles wheels, gears and mobility.

In the fall of 1946, Dwight moved to Richland and finished high school at Richland High and graduated 1948.Dwight loved his Richland High School days, making great friends, building friendships in the community, and participating in many activities. The year of his graduation, the Columbia River also had flooded. Dwight was stranded in Pasco with his friends at the time of the flood.

Dwight and his friends rented rooms in a purchased a boarding home in Pasco. He and his friends joined the town’s team called “Summer Hard Ball.” Old Friends & New Friends were welcome to play.

He then found the merchants, which helped him find a job, he worked out at the Hanford Project in the 1950s, this where he met his wife Bonnie Jo, and they started a family having two children, Debra and Robert.

In 1953 Dwight left the Hanford Project to pursue his love for Heavy Industrial Diesel and Heavy Equipment welding and repair, and moved his family to Kennewick. In 1964 Dwight was instrumental in developing and starting of the Diesel Equipment Technology and Repair Program at Columbia Basin College in Pasco. He was an instructor tor this program for ten plus years.

In the 1970s Dwight was instrumental in establishing and continuing the Washington-Idaho Operating Engineers, Local 370, apprenticeship and retraining program. His office and main training site was located in Spokane, WA with his second wife Jeanette. He held this position up until early retirement. He spent many retirement years in Olympia WA with third wife Loretta. He had recently relocated back to Pasco.

Dwight enjoyed collecting, restoring, cartoons, and showing vintage cars. He was an active member of the Ye Old Car Club of the Tri-Cities. He enjoyed camping, hunting and fishing with his family and friends.

Dwight was preceded in death by his first wife, Bonnie Jo and third wife Loretta; parents, John and Viva Underwood; sisters, Janice and Grace Carol and brother David..

He is survived by his daughter, Debra Lee Curtis and husband Mike; son, Robert Alan Underwood and wife Liberty; along with his four granddaughters Casey Silbaugh and husband Jason, Abby Zaspel and husband Joel, Willow Underwood and husband John and Sanday Underwood, and one grand son, Ulyber Mangune and wife Ioana, one great-grandson, Danny Silbaugh, one great-granddaughter, Eliza Jo Zaspel and many nieces and nephews.

Dwight would like to give a special thank you to all family and friends and especially his brother, David Underwood in helping him relocate back to Pasco.