Where Are They Now… Two Bandmates of the Class of ’62 Share Stories of Life After Graduation

By Misty Cryer

Keith Pearson and Dwight Pitcaithley had a lot in common in their high school years. According to the yearbook for their senior year, both were part of the Caveman Band, All State Band, and Mummers, and participated in the junior and senior class plays.

Pearson was also in the Science Club, Spanish Club, and National Honor Society, while Pitcaithley was part of the Key Club and the High School Band of America.

After high school, Pearson said he went to New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering. “I took a job with Pan American Petroleum,” he said, adding that the company later became Amoco.

After working for them for 20 months, Pearson said he took a job at General Tire, a synthetic latex plant in Odessa, TX.

“I worked for them for 21 years, and then I transferred to Mt. Vernon, IL,” he said. He worked for the General Tire plant there for 20 years. When he retired, he was the Manager of Environmental Programs for Continental Tire in North and South America.

“I loved my job,” said Pearson.

He credits Al Hughes, his English teacher in his junior year, with his ongoing interest in theater. “He made everybody in our class audition for the junior class play,” said Pearson. “I got a good part,” he said. The name of the play was Gramercy Ghost, he added.

“I had such a good time; when the time came the next year for the senior class, I wanted to be in it,” said Pearson. “It wasn’t so much the play, it’s the people,” he said.

Pearson said, since then, he and his wife have been involved in community theaters wherever they have lived. Pearson met his wife, Julie, in Odessa. “We were married in 1983,” he said. They have four children, four grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.

He said he played the trombone in the band. “I still play with the community band,” he said.

Pearson said he is also a Native American bead artist and enjoys flower gardening. “I do Native American art shows around the country. I’ve won several awards,” he said.

After retiring, Pearson said they lived in Henderson, NC, Julie’s hometown, for around 10 years before moving back to Mt. Vernon, IL, where they currently reside.

A display in the Hall of Fame at the Carlsbad Museum features much of Pitcaithley’s life story, which includes some of his books, his Purple Heart, and other awards he has earned.

Because of his interest in drumming, Pitcaithley said he started college at Eastern New Mexico University, majoring in music. “I didn’t have the skill or really the interest in music in its broadest sense that one needs to be a music major. They asked me to leave after two years and to come back when my grades could come up to their standards,” he said.

Three years in the Marine Corps, Pitcaithley said, “sort of sobered me up.” He served in Vietnam, where he was wounded. He said he was taken to Japan for an operation, then returned to San Diego for the rest of his tour.

Pitcaithley said he returned to ENMU, where he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history. After earning his PhD from Texas Tech, he said he immediately got a job with the National Park Service in Santa Fe as a historian.

In his 30 years with the National Park Service, Pitcaithley said he held several positions, including Regional Historian in the North Atlantic Regional Office in Boston, Chief of Cultural Resources in Washington, DC, and Chief Historian of the National Park Service.

After retiring from the National Park Service, Pitcaithley said he moved to Las Cruces, where he taught history at New Mexico State University for 15 years before retiring.

Although he considers himself fully retired, Pitcaithley said he is working on a long-term research and editing project with the University of Tennessee Press to explore the causes of the U.S. Civil War. “We put out four books already,” he said, adding that there are three more planned. He said that the books can be found on Amazon, with some available at the Carlsbad Public Library.

“My lovely bride and I have been married 57 years,” said Pitcaithley. His wife, Sabette, is from Lamesa, TX, and they have one daughter named Catherine, who lives in Las Cruces, where the couple also resides.

“Sabette and I talk about how lucky we have been to do the things we’ve done,” said Pitcaithley. “It’s just been a wonderful, wonderful life that I sort of pinch myself regularly, wondering ‘How did this happen for this kid from Carlsbad who flunked out of college?’”