Life Story: Everyone loved and came to count on David Dotson of Everett

Published 11:45 pm Saturday, April 24, 2010

Pam Dotson was 15 when she sat down in the lap of a high school boy she didn’t know told him she would love him forever.

Her behavior wasn’t characteristic. She just wanted to know who the boy was sitting at her friend’s usual table in the Boca Ciega High School cafeteria in St. Petersburg, Fla.

“I said, ‘Hello, I love you for the rest of my life. Who are you?’ and that’s how we met,” she said.

David Dotson, who was then 16, had her laughing within minutes, she said. The new friends continued to talk at school and Dotson learned he was funny, smart and kind.

“I thought, OK we have a winner,” she said. “I’ve been crazy about him every since.”

David Dotson died April 6 after fighting liver disease for seven months. He was 51.

The Everett man is survived by his wife, Pam Dotson; daughter and son-in-law, Anna and Todd Dahm; mother, Dorsey Dotson; and sisters Judy Harris and Joyce Dotson. He was preceded in death by his father, Willis Dotson; and daughter, Sarah Dotson.

He was born on Sept. 17, 1958, in Columbus, Ohio. David and Pam Dotson were married on Aug. 16, 1980, in her parent’s back yard in St. Petersburg. They had two children, Anna and Sarah.

David Dotson was a lifelong comic book collector who as a child loved pretending to be Superman, his older sister Judy Harris said.

“He was a Superman fanatic and had me put a big ‘S’ on some blue pajamas for him,” she said. “He would jump off the fence in the back yard trying to fly and we were always afraid he would get hurt but he didn’t.”

As an adult, Dotson did some freelance drawing for several comic books before he started work as a machinist in Columbus, Ohio. He was working at Rockwell North American when he surprised his employers by fiddling with one machine, causing it to make an ashtray in the shape of the state of Ohio.

After that, Dotson the machinist became Dotson the programmer.

Her husband did not have an engineering degree, but he was a fast learner and worked his way up, Pam Dotson said.

“He used to come into something not knowing anything and by the time people figured out he didn’t know what he was doing he had already learned it anyway,” she said.

In 1985, the Dotsons and their daughter, Anna, moved to Southern California, where Dotson was employed for seven years at Northrop. The couple welcomed another daughter, Sarah, into their lives in July 1986. The family of four moved to Washington in 1992 so Dotson could begin working on the Boeing 777. They settled in Everett in 1993.

At Boeing, Dotson worked in Tooling Engineering and was an active member of the Society of Automotive Engineers. He was a hard worker who also enjoyed entertaining his colleagues with jokes and impressions, according to his friend Patrick Stone, who met him at Boeing in the early 1990s.

“He was one of the fastest at assimilating complexities and finding solutions,” Stone said. “He was always tons of fun because he was a fearless ham. He was very funny and always lightened the mood.”

Dotson’s love for entertaining pointed him in the direction of acting and directing several plays. He acted with the Camwood Players in Stanwood, performing with his Boeing colleague Kevin Boze, and Rick Wright, who met him for the first time in August 1994 while rehearsing for the production of “Play On.”

When the show was over, Wright told Dotson about a group called The Everett Theatre Society that was trying to save the Historic Everett Theatre. They both went to a meeting and were soon cast in another production.

“From there we started volunteering and it never stopped,” Wright said. “We produced plays together, we acted, directed, built sets and sat on committees for 10 years.”

Dotson was willing to help wherever help was needed, Wright added.

“I remember one Saturday, pulling wire for the new light system, and David having three pagers on his belt because he was also invaluable at Boeing, where he worked,” he said. “Everyone relied on David.”

Theater was something the entire family could do together, Pam said. Their daughters were often in the audience during his shows. Once he directed “Lost in Yonkers” while she acted in the production.

“We saw a lot of his plays,” Anna Dahm said. “At one up in Stanwood with the Camwood Players, Sarah and I were in the audience for the third night running and somebody didn’t say a line right so Sarah called it out in the middle of the audience.” Dotson loved both of his girls very much, Pam said. He was devastated by Sarah’s death in 2002. At Disney World last August, he wore a boutonniere with a purple ribbon during Dahm’s wedding.

“Sarah was a purple-holic,” Pam said. “We made sure that (ribbon) was purple so he could walk both his girls down the aisle at the same time.”

The family made many trips to Disney theme parks and Dotson spoke about making another one soon. His illness made the trip impossible, but Pam and her daughter plan to visit Disneyland in October in his memory.

“We’re going to be doing the trip he wanted to take,” Pam said.

Amy Daybert: 425-339-3491, adaybert@heraldnet.com.