Dwight L. Pickard Jr.

PICKARD LEXINGTON - Dwight L. Pickard, Jr. died on March 3, 2011 after a long battle with pneumonia. A resident of Lexington. Mr. Pickard was born on November 16, 1938, the son of the late Judge Dwight L. Pickard and Mildred M. Ledbetter, a longtime teacher in Davidson County schools. An honors graduate of Lexington Senior High School in 1957 and winner of the Junior Championship in golf during his high school years, Mr. Pickard was a Hankins Scholar at Wake Forest University where he was Editor of The Student Magazine and contributing writer to the university newspaper. He earned his B.A. in English at Wake Forest, graduated from the Officer Candidate School of the U.S. Navy and was commissioned a Lieutenant JG where he served during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Most of his professional life was spent in Philadelphia where he was Editor of Motor Trend magazine, contributing writer to Entertainment magazine and Director of Communications for Universal Medical Services. He continued to write poetry most of his life. He is survived by two daughters, Macon Jessop and Rachel O'Connell of Brooklyn, New York, two grandchildren, Galen and Owen Jessop, and a third grandchild due in early May for the O'Connells. His sole surviving sibling is Mary Martin Niepold, Senior Lecturer of Journalism at Wake Forest and founder of a nonprofit, The Nyanya Project, which serves African grandmothers raising grandchildren orphaned by AIDS. Mr. Pickard was a big supporter of this work, and the family requests that remembrances be made in his memory to The Nyanya Project, 310 W. 4th St., #1304, Winston-Salem, N.C. 27101. Piedmont Funeral Home is serving the Pickard family. Online condolences may be made at www. piedmontfuneralhome.com.