Dwight Rettie

Obituary Dwight Fay Rettie, 84, of Morehead City, NC died Sunday, September 28, 2014 at home. A memorial service will be held 4:00 p.m. Saturday, November 8, at the Unitarian Coastal Fellowship, 1300 Evans Street, Morehead City, NC with the Rev. John Biggers officiating. A reception will follow at the church. Inurnment will be at the columbarium at Arlington National Cemetery following a ceremony marking his service in the United States Army during the Korean conflict. The date will be announced. Mr. Rettie was a lifelong conservationist and public servant. Retiring from the National Park Service in 1986, Rettie was a 30-plus year federal employee who lived, taught, and exemplified a brand of public service no longer given prominence in American culture. His greatest public service hero was President John F. Kennedy, whom he served in the Interior Department under Secretary of the Interior, Stewart L. Udall. Rettie, a 1952 graduate of Yale University with honors, and a Masters Degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1955, both in political science, later taught that subject at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC from 1999 2001 and earlier at Carteret Community College in Morehead City, NC from 1995 1998. Born in New Haven, CT, in 1930, Rettie lived with his family in London, England; Juneau, Alaska; Portland, OR; and Philadelphia, PA. He graduated from the Haverford School in Haverford, PA in 1948. He lived in Arlington, VA from 1955 until 1987 when he and his wife, Karen, left to go cruising on their ocean-going sailboat. They sailed until settling in Morehead City, NC in 1995. Dwight Rettie was the author of a recent book, Our National Park System. The late Yale historian, Robin Winks, called it, The best book on the subject in 30 years! Rettie also wrote a prize-winning Civil War story and was frequently published in local, state, and national newspapers on a wide variety of topics related to parks and heritage subjects. Retties long career of public service spanned professional assignments in the National Park Service (1975 1986), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (1966 1971), the office of the Secretary of the Interior (1964 1966), the Bureau of Land Management (1957 1963, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (1963 1964). His entire career was spent in Washington, D.C. He worked earlier in the U.S. Treasury Department and for the U.S. Forest Service in western Montana as a lookout and smokechaser during summers at college. Rettie also served outside the government as executive director of the non-profit National Recreation and Park Association, a 20,000-member non-profit organization in Washington, D.C., from 1971 1975. He served on several boards and commissions, including that of the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority of Fairfax, VA, and was chairman of the Arlington County(VA) Public Utilities Commission. In Morehead City and Newport, NC, he served in various capacities since 1995 on the governing board of the Unitarian Coastal Fellowship. He was also responsible for chairing the committee credited with writing the first official Democratic Party Platform for Carteret County for 2003 2004. Rettie is survived by his wife, Karen Ross Rettie, and four children, Stuart Rettie and wife, Tracy, Catherine Melton and husband, Jay, Tom Rettie and wife, Heather Bryden all of Falls Church, VA; and Jeff Hoffman and wife, Meghan, of West Chester, PA. He has six grandchildren, Michelle and Brian Melton, Carly and Jenna Rettie, Zach and Levi Hoffman. He is also survived by two siblings, Josephine Morgan of Bellingham, WA, and C. William Rettie of Mebane, NC. He is preceded in death by his parents, James Cardno Rettie and Lois Chloe Morris Rettie. The family requests that in lieu of flowers, memorial donations be made to your favorite charity or the Unitarian Coastal Fellowship Building Fund, 1300 Evans Street, Morehead City, NC 28557. Memorial Service 4:00 p.m. ,Saturday, November 8, 2014 Unitarian Coastal Fellowship 1300 Evans Street Morehead City, NC 28557 Reception following service Unitarian Coastal Fellowship 1300 Evans Street Morehead City, NC 28557 Services You can still show your support by sending flowers directly to the family, or by planting a memorial tree in the memory of Dwight Rettie