Obituary of Dale Dewey

Dale Ellis Dewey was born to Helen M. (Porter) Dewey and Ellis H. Dewey on October 1, 1945 in Canandaigua NY. He retired from life on July 17, 2020, surrounded by his loving family.

Curious from a very young age, Dale’s infatuation with technology and electronics started when he disassembled an old TV in grade school. During the summers of high school and college he worked for Rochester Telephone doing dial conversion. He graduated from Canandaigua Academy in 1963 and attended SUNY Alfred State where he received a degree in Engineering Science in 1965. He felt accomplished receiving a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 1968. His work during his senior year can still be seen online at www.silogic.com/Athena/Athena.html.

In his last year at Carnegie Mellon, he married the love of his life Linda Ferguson. She moved with him to Pittsburgh while he completed his studies and immediately after graduation, he received attractive employment offers from Eastman Kodak, NASA, and Raytheon. Dale accepted a job offer from Eastman Kodak, and started at the Odenbach Shipyard facility until his government clearances arrived. Then, during a career that spanned 38, years he worked at Hawkeye, Elmgrove, and Kodak Office. He worked on numerous projects, including government contracts, product development, spinoffs of Eastman Chemical and Clinical Diagnostics, and IT purchasing over his career.

Dale began a lifetime of volunteering simultaneous to starting at Kodak. Over the years he worked with the United Way of Rochester, including being the Chair of the Donor Committee; CURE Childhood Cancer Association, helping publish one of the first Parent Handbooks and serving on the board; and Eastman Kodak Retiree Association (EKRA), serving as the Vice President.

Inspired by his consulting firm, D2 Engineering, and his wife’s business of 42 years, Linda Dewey Interiors, he spent countless hours in his retirement advising small business owners through SCORE. He started as a mentor, then continued as Chapter Vice President and IT Guru. One of the last things he did was to check his messages from SCORE, close his computer, and quietly say “I want out of here.” ALS is a horrible disease and two days later he passed, on July 17, 2020.

Dale is survived by his beloved wife of 53 years, Linda; his oldest daughter Amber (Louis Tremante) Dewey; his youngest daughter Robin Dewey; grandsons Ari “Dewey” Schwartz and Paul Tremante; sister Linda Turner; brother-in-law Jim (Barbara) Ferguson; many nieces and nephews; and granddogs. Predeceased by his four loving poodles.

In lieu of donations, Dale would like everyone to volunteer for your favorite cause in his name; or perform random acts of kindness in the community.