Dwight E. Shirey, 9/20/51 - 5/08/12

Dwight Elliott Shirey

Dwight Elliott Shirey, 60, of Columbus, Ohio and a former longtime resident of Leetonia, passed away in the evening of May 8, 2012 at Mill Run Gardens and Care Center, Hillard, Ohio, where he had been a resident for the past two years.

Mr. Shirey was born on September 20, 1951, in Pittsburgh, PA and grew up in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, the oldest son of Ralph C. Shirey and Lilias Elliott Shirey.

He was Born-Again at the age of nine and from that point on, committed his life to serving God which was most often expressed through music.

He graduated from Greater Latrobe Area High School and shortly thereafter, travelled through Europe playing his trombone as part of the American Youth Symphony, one of only two groups of its kind at that time.

Upon returning from Europe, he attended and graduated from United Wesleyan College in Allentown, Pennsylvania where he met and fell in love with his future bride, Susie. After marrying in 1972, they made their home in Allentown and then Bethlehem, Pennsylvania before moving to Ohio in 1978 where they raised their family.

Dwight was active in the Church of the Nazarene for 40 years as a Song Evangelist, Minister of Music, an Ordained Elder, and Pastoring in Warren, Ohio. After moving to Columbus to be closer to his beloved grandchildren, he was a member of Shepherd Church of the Nazarene in Gahanna, Ohio, using his musical and pastoring talents wherever he could.

Dwight passed on his love of music to his children, including being a part of the Leetonia High School Marching Band for the years his three children were involved and even after. His booming voice and bright orange hat will be remembered by many years of high school band students.

Dwight and his bride, Susie Thompson Shirey celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary this month. They have three children:, Samuel-Troy E. Shirey of Lisbon, OH;  Karin Shirey-Henn (Timothy) of Galloway Oh; and Kristen Shirey of Columbus, OH.  Dwight was also the proud and loving grandfather to five grandchildren: Isaiah, Isaac & Esther-Faith Henn, and Jackson & Aurora Deubner. 

He was preceded in death by his parents and his brother, Calvin T. Shirey of Salt Lake City, Utah.

A Memorial Service will be held at Shepherd Church of the Nazarene on May 18, 2012 at 11:00 AM.  (425 South Hamilton Rd, Gahanna, OH 43230). In lieu of flowers, the family has requested giving to the Mount Vernon Nazarene University Music Department Scholarship Fund in Memory of Dwight E Shirey. (800 Martinsburg Rd, Mount Vernon, OH 43050).

Bookmarks

Most people have certain moments in their life they use to mark everything else. "Before we went to...", "It was after we did...", etc. Those moments are usually amazingly good or devastatingly bad, but whichever category they fall into, they burn themselves into our brains because of the starkly different level of intensity they carried above and beyond everyday life. My friend Dave Scott calls them, bookmarks.

These bookmarks are by their very nature, rare. So what happens when three or four of them all happen at the same time? Which one do you choose to complete the kind of sentences I mentioned? And on a different thought stream, can the normal human being survive so many intense moments all at once? 

The past few weeks combined with the next few weeks have the potential to be steering me towards that strange anomaly, and in all seriousness, I'm scared how I'm going to handle it and furthermore, come out of it. While there are only a handful of you still out there reading ELEVEN, my life is touched by literally hundreds of people, and with that thought comes the question of what my life is really going to look like when the smoke clears. Is this stretch of super-close bookmarks going to be healthy for me, or something completely different? And what is Sam going to look like to the people around me as a result.

I'd say, "Stay tuned," but I just don't know.