1945 – 2022
William Dale Scilley
William Dale Scilley was born April 17th,1945 to William Dell Scilley and Betty Lou Davis. Over a year later on October 23rd, 1946, Dale’s brother, Robert Daniel Scilley, was born.
Dale and his brother grew up in Billings, Montana, spending weekends on their grandmother’s property in Luther, Montana. Dale immediately took to sports, playing baseball, basketball, and football. He went to Billings West High School, where he was a part of the very first graduating class of 1963. In high school he lettered in baseball, football, and basketball, along with being All State in football and basketball his senior year. In 2010, Dale was inducted into the Billings American Legion Baseball Hall of Fame. He was recruited to Washington State University on a sports scholarship to play baseball.
He began his college career in 1963. While at WSU, he joined the fraternity Phi Delta Theta, where he met some of his lifelong friends. Originally, Dale studied to become a chemical engineer before switching to the business school.
Dale had his first and only son, Loy Norrix, on April 16th, 1965. In that same year, his WSU baseball team won 16 of its first 17 outings, including 12-straight to open the 1965 season, and rolled to a 29-6 regular season record. They won the Pacific Coast Northern Division and the Cougars finished 4th in the nation for that year. His 1965 baseball team was inducted into the WSU hall of fame in 2013. Dale also dabbled with a bit of basketball and football while at WSU, but baseball was always his favorite sport.
He graduated in 1968 with a degree in marketing. After college he signed a professional contract with the Detroit Tigers in 1968 and played a couple of years in the minor leagues, but had to eventually leave professional baseball forever after a career-ending knee injury.
Dale moved to the Seattle area after college, following his WSU friends. A couple months after graduating from college he had his first daughter Brooke Kilpatric, née Scilley on November 11th, 1968 with his first wife.
He worked a myriad of jobs in the Seattle area, including Boeing, 3M, Standard Register Company, and Potters Industries before settling in long term at RED-E Topsoil in Redmond. Dale took advantage of the Pacific Northwest’s beautiful scenery through boating, water sports, skiing, biking, fishing, golfing, and summiting Mt. Rainier.
He met his wife, Donna Lutkewitte, in 1987, and got married in 1994. They welcomed their daughter Davis Danielle Scilley on September 20th, 1995, naming her after his brother and late mother.
Dale retired in 2014 and spent his days playing lots of golf at Bear Creek Country Club, along with taking hunting trips to Montana, fishing trips to Alaska, and golfing trips to Palm Desert.
William Dale Scilley passed away peacefully at home on December 6th, 2022. He was 77 years old. Dale is survived by his wife (Donna), brother (Dan), children (Loy, Brooke, and Davis), and grandchildren (Liam and Lauren Norrix).
A celebration of life will be held at Bear Creek Country Club on February 4th, 2023 from 3:00pm-7:00pm. Anyone in Dale’s life is welcome—he had love and respect for all of his friends and family.
The post first appeared on Barton Family Funeral Service.