{"id":10671,"date":"2016-02-23T19:38:24","date_gmt":"2016-02-24T02:38:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=10671"},"modified":"2016-02-25T08:08:37","modified_gmt":"2016-02-25T15:08:37","slug":"the-late-dwight-raup-few-possessions-but-many-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2016\/02\/the-late-dwight-raup-few-possessions-but-many-friends\/","title":{"rendered":"The late Dwight Raup: Few possessions, many friends"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dwight\"<\/a>

Mike Mallory<\/p>

Hundreds, if not thousands, of people knew of Dwight Raup as a fixture in downtown Billings, and many people did what they could to ease his life on the streets.<\/p><\/div>\n

If you ever saw Dwight Raup in downtown Billings, most likely on a bench under Skypoint, or at a table drinking coffee at Rock Creek Coffee Roasters, you might have thought he didn\u2019t have much.<\/p>\n

He carried everything he owned: his clothes, a bedroll and a green duffel bag stuffed with belongings.<\/p>\n

But he had something a good deal more valuable than his few material items. He possessed a large network of friends and guardian angels who did as much for him as he allowed them to do, and many of them believed he gave them more than they gave to him.<\/p>\n

Dwight, who was known universally by his first name, was a fixture in downtown Billings for many years. He died Saturday at Billings Clinic of advanced pancreatic cancer.<\/p>\n

People who knew Dwight told different stories about their relationship with him, but they all mentioned a few things: he was unfailingly kind; he never asked for anything; he never caused any trouble; he was acutely aware of what was going on around him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know anyone who didn\u2019t like Dwight,\u201d said Joel Gargaro, the owner, with his wife, Peggy, of Rock Creek Coffee Roasters.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always been remarkable to me that someone who asked for so little meant so much to so many downtown,\u201d said Gina McIntyre Colton, a longtime friend of Dwight\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe definitely made downtown feel like a safer place because he cared,\u201d Sharli Kiner said. \u201cHe was really a good man.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kiner, the owner of Limber Tree Studios, is hosting a memorial gathering for friends of Dwight at 3 p.m. this Friday in her studio at 212 N. 29th St. Dwight frequently slept in a little alcove next to the Gypsy Wind store just down the street from the Limber Tree.<\/p>\n

Dwight’s son, who lives in Washington state, is expected to attend the memorial. Friends say Dwight’s mental illness, presumed by them to be paranoid schizophrenia, alienated him from his family. They look forward to letting his son know how much Dwight was valued in Billings.<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>Colton got to know Dwight 11 or 12 years ago, when she was working downtown. She often saw him rolling his own cigarettes, so one day she handed him a little parcel with two packs of rolling papers and a $5 bill. She and Dwight did little more than exchange names that day, but they soon became friends.<\/p>\n

Colton didn\u2019t work downtown long, but she lived nearby and often went downtown just to visit with him. If she didn\u2019t see him for a day or two, she learned that there were people she could text to check up on him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a kind of network of people looking out for him,\u201d she said. Some people gave him money or food or vouchers for a short motel stay. The Billings Army-Navy Surplus Store kept him in boots, bedding and other gear.<\/p>\n

Dwight told Colton that he\u2019d been in Billings 22 years, that he came here as a truck driver. But he was mostly quiet about his past and she didn\u2019t probe. He also had a lot of conspiracy theories to share\u2014one that he was suffering from paraffin poisoning, possibly at the hands of Mormons, another that the Catholics were responsible for the polar vortex.<\/p>\n

He also had some memorable quotes, Colton\u2019s favorite being, \u201cWhat we have here is interference by a long line of dirty bastards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joel Gargaro said that once Dwight started to frequent his coffee shop, he was there almost every day, inside in cold weather, outside when it was nice enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe never, ever asked for anything, always paid for everything,\u201d Gargaro said, though his workers would sometimes refuse payment and other customers donated money for Dwight’s drinks.<\/p>\n

\"Still<\/a>

Coila Evans<\/p>

Coila Evans, an artist from Roundup, shot a video of Dwight a couple of years ago and captured this still frame from it. She is now using it to paint his portrait.<\/p><\/div>\n

And though Dwight used to smoke a lot\u2014pipes in earlier years, then cigarettes\u2014no one could remember seeing him with a drink, much less acting intoxicated. That was confirmed by Matt Lennick, one of the Police Department\u2019s downtown resource officers.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo open container, no alcohol, never an issue with us,\u201d Lennick said. \u201cHe never made a mess. He never left a scrap when he got up and moved in the morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lennick also confirmed that Dwight kept a sharp eye out.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe always knew what was going on,\u201d Lennick said. \u201cWhether he chose to tell you or not was pretty hit or miss.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe Stout, director of operations for the Downtown Billings Alliance, said he and other DBA people who worked the streets saw Dwight every day, often multiple times a day. Since he usually wore his heavy jacket and stocking cap even in the summer, Stout said, they\u2019d often deliver water to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cA man can\u2019t live on coffee alone,\u201d Stout said.<\/p>\n

Coila Evans, an artist from Roundup, met Dwight while working in a friend\u2019s gallery in the Babcock Building during the farmers\u2019 market a couple of years ago. She said Dwight would watch over her shoulder as she worked on a painting, saying little but expressing his approval in throaty rumblings.<\/p>\n

She said he told her he used to be a professional photographer and would talk at length about processing film and printing photographs. She took him to breakfast on occasion and loved hearing him talk.<\/p>\n

Even before she knew him, Evans took a two-second video of Dwight smoking his pipe. After she learned of his death last weekend, she dug out a still frame she\u2019d made from the video and began painting a portrait of Dwight. When she zoomed in on the photo, she said, she was surprised to see that his eyes, which she remembered as warm and kind, were framed by deep, dark lines, which seemed to say a lot about what he\u2019d seen in a life on the streets.<\/p>\n

She was still working on the painting Tuesday, trying hard to capture what she felt in that photo.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo paint him was far more emotional than I thought,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Catherine Louisa Eithier, owner of the Catherine Louisa Gallery on the 100 block of North Broadway, was also dealing with strong emotions on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

She got to know Dwight during the bitterly cold winter of 2014. She kept seeing him on the street and wondered why he wasn\u2019t staying with someone during such harsh weather.<\/p>\n

\"TV\"<\/a>

Catherine Louisa Eithier<\/p>

Catherine Louisa Eithier took a photo of Dwight watching a science-fiction movie on her iPad at her old art gallery in the Babcock Building.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI realized, maybe no one had asked him,\u201d she said, and so she did. She was a little surprised when he accepted immediately, with a big smile on his face. Her husband, Steve Aaberg, had his own misgivings, and Eithier admitted that when she first brought Dwight home, \u201cI was a little apprehensive that whole night.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it \u201cwas wonderful, just wonderful,\u201d she said. \u201cHe stayed for several days. He was such a gentleman.\u201d<\/p>\n

He ate dinner with Eithier and Aaberg, after which he\u2019d go into their living room and watch television. He especially loved science-fiction movies, the more action-packed the better.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe got so into it he\u2019d be pretend shooting at the TV,\u201d she said. In the morning, after breakfast, Eithier would drive him from their home near the hospitals to Rock Creek Coffee, and at 5 p.m. he\u2019d show up at her gallery for the ride home. After he\u2019d stayed with them four or five days, she said, it was still so cold that they paid for a week\u2019s stay at the Dude Rancher Lodge, which he also enjoyed.<\/p>\n

She and her husband noticed Dwight had big open sores on his legs, and they offered to take him to the RiverStone Health Clinic. He refused, saying he wouldn\u2019t go south of the tracks under any circumstances. That may be why he didn\u2019t stay at the Rescue Mission, though others said he couldn\u2019t stand being cooped up with so many people.<\/p>\n

About a year ago, possibly because he\u2019d been beaten up by other transients, Dwight moved to the West End. He\u2019d sleep during the day in a little park behind the Pier One store on South 24th Street West and hang out at the Wal-Mart at night.<\/p>\n

Dawn Shrinarine lives on the West End and started seeing a lot of Dwight about this time last year. But he was always neatly dressed, so she didn\u2019t realize he was homeless at first.<\/p>\n

When it became obvious he was homeless, \u201cI was just kind of drawn to him, so I started stopping to see what he needed,\u201d she said. From then on she would often talk to him two or three times a day, and she and her 9-year-old daughter would take Dwight out for a meal.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe kind of viewed Dwight as grandfatherly,\u201d Shrinarine said. \u201cHe would tell her stories, and if she wasn\u2019t with me he always asked about her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dwight told her he used to be a truck driver, that he\u2019d been in the military and had lived in Alaska, New York and Arizona, among other places, Shrinarine said. He also told her he was born in 1949.<\/p>\n

He also had a wry sense of humor. When she asked him what brought him to Billings, he answered, \u201cAn old Chevrolet.\u201d<\/p>\n

She drove Dwight back downtown last October, just for a visit, she thought, but he stayed downtown. She drove down to see him several times a day, and when Dwight suddenly became quite ill last Thursday and was taken to Billings Clinic, Joel Gargaro called Shrinarine and let her know.<\/p>\n

She went to the hospital and, joined by Colton, was with Dwight during the last few days of his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe really touched my heart and my soul, and I\u2019m just so grateful to have had him for a friend,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Eithier said much the same thing, adding that Dwight helped her see that other transients, who might have seemed dangerous at first, were also human beings who respond well to being treated with kindness.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like they give us an opportunity,\u201d she said. \u201cThey give us an opportunity to give, and you know, that\u2019s wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said Dwight was special because so many people got to know him. But there are many others to know.<\/p>\n

As for Dwight\u2019s death, she said, \u201cI hope, I really hope, it motivates us all to reach out. When someone\u2019s gone, it\u2019s too late.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you ever saw Dwight Raup in downtown Billings, most likely on a bench under Skypoint, or at a table drinking coffee at Rock Creek Coffee Roasters, you might have thought he didn\u2019t have much. He carried everything he owned: his clothes, a bedroll and a green duffel bag stuffed with belongings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10672,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,17],"tags":[3881,322,3879,3873,975,3871,3875,3880,3878,3872,3877,973,3874,2294,3876],"class_list":["post-10671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-billings","category-culture","tag-billings-army-navy-surplus-store","tag-billings-clinic","tag-catherine-louisa-eithier","tag-dawn-shrinarine","tag-downtown-billings-alliance","tag-dwight-raup","tag-gina-mcintyre-colton","tag-gypsy-wind","tag-joe-stout","tag-joel-gargaro","tag-limber-tree-studios","tag-matt-lennick","tag-riverstone-health-clinic","tag-rock-creek-coffee-roasters","tag-sharli-kiner","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}