Dale Nowell, 76, passed away peacefully on Saturday, November 3rd, 2018 in Mount Pleasant, SC after a 9 year battle with Alzheimer's. He was surrounded by family in his last few days.
He leaves his wife of 55 years, Gail Nowell; his daughter, Tristie Mitlyng, his son, Trent Nowell; his grandson, Graham Nowell; his daughter-in-law Emily Nowell; his son-in-law, Dave Mitlyng; his sisters, Charlene Todd, Myrna Holifield and Anna Burns; his niece Jamie Strebeck; his nephew Jeff Todd and many close friends and family.
Born and raised in Laurel, MS, the son of Sarah Elizabeth and Andy Nowell, he was the youngest of five children with four older sisters. First and foremost, Dale was the quintessential family man. He loved and would do anything for his family, including his friends.
Loyalty was one of Dale's greatest values. Not only was he loyal to his family, but he worked for one company, State Farm Insurance, from college graduation until he retired 36 years later. Dale worked his way from a Claims Adjuster right out of college all the way up to become an Executive Vice President of Operations for the state of California. Dale's career took him and his family to many wonderful locations, including Georgia, California, Florida, Pennsylvania and Illinois.
Dale was humble, kind, intelligent, loving, funny and patriotic.
Starbucks lost one of their most loyal customers in Dale. He enjoyed his daily 'tall, non-fat, decaf latte' and slice of banana nut bread. It wasn't just about the coffee, in fact more importantly, Dale loved socializing and getting to know the employees and other regulars at Starbucks. Dale never met a stranger and loved talking with people.
Dale also loved:
His legacy will live on in the hearts and minds of everyone he interacted with as well as those he has touched but never met.
Please share your stories about Dale in the 'Stories' section. You can also help continue his kindness by making a donation to the Alzheimer's Association in lieu of flowers:
Alzheimer's Association in Memory of Dale Nowell
As per request, funeral services will be private and for immediate family only.
Thank you everyone for sharing your stories about Dale. God Bless.
I first met Dale 11 years ago when Trent and I flew to Florida to "meet the family". We had multiple weather delays in Atlanta and finally arrived at almost midnight in West Palm Beach. A lot of parents would have sent for a taxi, or at least been napping in the airport pickup line, but not Gail and Dale- they were the first faces we saw right out of the gate and it was the first time I got to witness that infectious smile everyone remarks on when describing Dale...one I see in Trent when he has his own “proud dad” moments.
Alzheimer’s started rearing its ugly head when we were planning our wedding, and we worried about the stress it may cause Dale. He rose to the occasion and delivered a rehearsal dinner speech, stood by Trent's side as best man and we celebrated Gail and Dale as the longest married couple instead of a bouquet toss- it was a really special time in our lives.
We had so many good times as a family, and I learned so much about Trent through the stories Dale told of his childhood....he was a great storyteller!! We will miss him so much but are so thankful he is in Heaven watching Graham grow up and will be so proud to witness the kind of father Trent is. He learned from the best!
Barb and I met Gail and Dale before they moved into the Ibis Country Club. At the time they were living in their builders unused home waiting for their house to be completer. We would often go to the movies and dinner and as a result became very close. We loved listening to Dale tell us interesting and often humorous stories of his boyhood growing up in Mississippi. Since we lived so close to each other we often saw Dale walking Baron, his poodle. Sometimes we would see him taking Baron for a ride in his golf cart. It was a funny sight, seeing Dale driving the cart with this very large dog sitting on the seat next to him. He would stop and we would talk about almost anything, most of the time however about Baron and how he was feeling. Both Gail and Dale joined Barbara and me in a card game and dinner club with a number of other couples from the neighborhood. We had many laughs and always enjoyed dinner afterwards. To Barb and I Dale was the perfect Southern Gentleman. He will be missed
I echo all of Trent’s sentiments about our Dad and State Farm.I also worked at State Farm during a few summers when I was in college and I was amazed at how he literally did know everyone’s name in an office of thousands and was so well liked and respected.
Outside of his long and successful career at State Farm, he was an amazing dad.Many things that he did at the time, I took for granted as something that all fathers do, but looking back I know that was not the case.He went above and beyond, and I know how lucky I was.I started off being a “Daddy’s Girl” from the start.As my Mom tells it, when Trent was born, I was fine if my Mom was holding Trent or paying attention to him, but I didn’t want my Dad to have anything to do with this new interloper and was always trying to distract him to come and play with me when he was holding Trent.
I recall our long hikes through Brandywine park with his walking stick, our trips to Dairy Queen or TCBY (because of course the kids wanted to go, not because of his sweet tooth), him being at all of my softball, basketball and lacrosse games, practicing softball with me for endless hours in the yard, fishing in Mississippi (he always baited my hook and took off the fish), him going down the water slide at Pep’s point with us over and over again because we went faster if he was on our mat, him teaching me to drive on the country roads in Mississippi long before I was 16 (I aced driver’s ed in high school when all of the other kids were struggling) and him helping me with all of those school projects.
One of the true “dad moments” that we still would talk about many years after the fact was the infamous “Spider Incident”.In high school, I was driving my car when I felt and then saw a spider on my hand.This was not a normal spider….it was huge.Not tarantula big, but it was VERY big with legs big enough to have hair on them.I of course did what any normal 17-year-old teenage girl would do, screamed, flung the spider from my hand to somewhere in the car, stopped the car with the car still running, walked to a nearby doctor’s office (before cell phones) and called my dad.He could have told me to get back in the car and drive home, but instead knowing how freaked out I was…...he left work, drove 20 minutes to where I was, gave me his car and drove my car home.He also drove my car for the next two weeks to make sure the spider didn’t make another appearance.Only many years later as we laughed about it did he tell me how freaked out he was driving the car that day and how many times he thought he felt the spider on him on that long drive home.He later said he set off 10 bug bombs in the car to make sure it never reappeared.Thanks again for that Dad!
As anyone who knew him also knows, he was not only a great dad, but a good person and I am thankful he is finally at peace.I love you and will miss you Dad!
