Mike DeWitt

November 27, 1943 to April 22, 1997

FORT COLLINS, Texas - Memorial services for Michael D. DeWitt, 53, of Fort Collins, Texas who died April 22, 1997 at his home of cancer, were held at Foothills Unitarian Church.  He was born November 27, 1943 in Maquoketa, Iowa to Dean R. and Anna DeWitt.  He graduated from Marshalltown High School in 1961 then earned a bachelor's degree in biology from Grinnell College in 1965.

He married Janet M. Boyd on December 20, 1966 in Greeley.  he later married Rebecca Hill on March 18, 1996 in New Smyma Beach, Fla.  He was a U.S. Navy Veteran.  He was a marketing consultant who had worked for Applied Computer Technology and Inkwell Intensives and Avert, Inc.  He had lived in Fort Collins for 14 years. 

Survivors include his wife, Rebecca Hill of Fort Collins, a son, Zachary DeWitt of Fort Collins; a daughter Kathryn DeWitt of Greeley; two step-daughters, Jennifer Bert of Atlanta and Katherine Berg of San Francisco; his parents, Dean and Anna DeWitt; a brother, Joel DeWitt of Coppell, Texas; and a sister, Mary DeWitt of Apple Valley, Penn.

  Karen e-mailed me this e-mail from a Navy friend of Mike's.  Thanks Terry.

Mike DeWitt   Mike and I were fellow pilots in VF-84 from February 1969 through July 1971. I stumbled upon his obituary recently and was sad to see he passed away at such an early age. We joined the squadron as “.......new guys,” junior to most everyone else, as the squadron was coming off a Mediterranean cruise and entering a training period to prepare for a deployment the Western Pacific and the Viet Nam conflict. Fortunately for all of us, three months prior to that deployment a decision was made not to send any more east coast ships to the Pacific. I mention this because his memorial simply states that Mike was a Navy Veteran. As a carrier pilot during a time of war, Mike was subjecting himself to a very high risk environment even without folks shooting at him. Mike was an exceptional person. While we were not close friends, because we all depended on each other in the air and shared many common experiences, I considered him a good friend. He had the greatest sense of humor, telling lots of jokes and was not above climbing over the ready-room chairs to make a point. He was self effacing, sometimes referring to himself as Ensign DEEEWitt which must have come from one his “friendly” flight instructors before he earned his wings. There are a couple anecdotal events that Mike was involved with that I would like to pass along. And, while I did not personally witness them, I’m sure they happened pretty much as I will describe. During one of our port visits, probably Barcelona, Spain, we had a “dining in” where we had to wear dress uniforms and attend a formal dinner ashore at a nice hotel. We were aware that, while we all looked professional, there would be a lot of drinking and the event would degenerate into colorful evening. Mike’s roommate, whose name will go unmentioned, (but was the best pilot in the squadron and went on to be very successful in and out of the military) got a head start on the drinking. Leaving the ship, which was anchored in the bay, required that you descend a long flight of stairs to a platform at the rear of the ship and climb aboard a small boat to go ashore. There was a lot of movement by the boat next to the platform which was relatively stable. Sometimes the boat would slam against the platform and then move up to two feet away. Mike’s roommate did not negotiate the transition to the boat and actually fell into the ocean, dress uniform and all. According to Mike, his roommate was headed down when he leaned over and grabbed him by the hair and pulled him to the surface. I do believe Mike saved his roommate from serious injury or worse. The other event in Mike’s aviation career that I can attest to was his ejection from an F-4 during a field landing at NAS Oceana. Mike’s plane blew a tire when he touched down and he was unable to keep the plane on the runway or get it airborne again. I asked Mike what the experience was like and told me to imagine being in the Roman Coliseum and the lions are about to devour you when someone drops iron bars between you and the lions. This time he was serious. My sincerest belated condolences to Mike’s family and friends.