Ida A. DOLPHIN

1922 - 2017

DOLPHIN,
Ida A. (Rowe)

In the comfort of family and the loving arms of God, Ida A. (Rowe) Dolphin, 94, completed the circle of life, going home, on January 3, 2017, at the Guardian Angel Homes in Liberty Lake, where she had resided since April 2016. Her peaceful death was due to natural causes related to a long life, lived well and well lived.
Born November 10, 1922, in the City of Cadiz, Negros Occidental, Philippine Islands, she came to the United States as a child. Returning to the Philippines with her mother in 1935, she was preparing to come to the U.S. to finish her education when WW II broke out. She was imprisoned at Santo Tomas Internment Camp in Manila as a civilian prisoner of war until she conspired with family, and friends in Manila, to affect a very stringent conditional release - which she ignored, instead making her way to the family hacienda on Negros.
There, using false papers, she evaded the enemy and worked in Bacolod until it became too dangerous. She then joined the civilian resistance government in the mountains until the end of the war when she came to the U.S.
After business college, she married and had six children. She later divorced, completed her college education, earning her bachelors (1965) and masters (1968) at Whitworth, and taught for nearly 20 years at Spokane's Shadle Park High School, where she sponsored the Hiking Club.
She authored "Life on Hold" about her wartime experiences (which were also recorded by the Air Force's Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) school); and, after "learning to backpack for fun", co-authored the first edition of "100 Hikes in the Inland Northwest" for the Spokane Mountaineers.
Serving as president of the Spokane Mountaineers, she rejuvenated the Mountain Climbing School. Additionally, she co-instructed an edible wild plant seminar for the Spokane Parks and Recreation Department.
An accomplished artist in watercolors, oil, and acrylics, she was a member of the Spokane Watercolor Society. As a Master Gardener, she lectured on topics such as container gardening, planning beds for color and interest, primroses and penstemons. A charter member of the Friends of Manito, she led tours, and organized their first plant sale in 1990. She was a life member (and past president) of both the Eastern Washington Chapter of the Native Plant Society, and the Spokane Mushroom Society; and was featured in a U.S. Forest Service interpretive exhibit as the "Incidental Mushroomer".
She fell in love with fellow Mountaineer Tony Dolphin whom she married in 1985. Together with Tony, she travelled, tended her garden, experienced the outdoors, remained active in conservation issues, and read voraciously.
Predeceased by her true-love and husband Tony in 2009, she is survived by her children: Florence (John) Townsend, and Jerel (Karen) Rowe, both of Newman Lake; Janell (Tommy) Morse, Spotsylvania, Virginia; Jody Rowe, Coeur d'Alene; Corinne (George) Juniel, and Melanie Rowe, both of Las Vegas, Nevada. She is also survived by her sisters-in-law: Gwen Dolphin Rawlings, Kennewick; Lola Dolphin, City of Spokane Valley; and Mary Floy Dolphin, Liberty Lake.
Her extended family includes 21 grand-children, 23 great-grand- children, numerous nieces, nephews, grand-nieces and grand-nephews, all of whom she cared for deeply.
A private family burial will be held at Spokane Memorial Gardens. Ida's life will be celebrated on a future date at Community United Methodist Church, Coeur d'Alene, where she was a member.
The family respectfully requests that those wishing to honor Ida do so through donations in her memory to the Spokane Mountaineers Conservation Fund, the Lands Council, the Nature Conservancy, and especially Hospice of Spokane to whom the family is extremely grateful.