Dwight E. Pardue, Sr.

Year Inducted: 2025

Dwight was born August 03,1928 to Gilbert F. and Nina Glass Pardue, attended North Wilkesboro School and graduated in 1945 from North Wilkesboro High School. During high school he worked for R &0 Grocery bagging and delivering groceries. He attended Clevenger Business College. In 1950 Dwight was drafted into the US Army stationed at Fort Jackson outside of Columbia South Carolina. While in the army he married Annie Eller and they had their first son a year later. After discharge from the army Dwight was employed by Carolina Mirror in production and returned to Clevenger Business College for night classes.

In September of 1956 Dwight went to work for Lowe's Hardware as it was known then, as director of warehousing. Shortly after going to work for Lowe's, they had a second son. For the next thirty-four years he advanced to store manager to regional vice president of the northern region to senior vice president of store operations. In 1978 he was promoted to senior vice president of store and sales operations and served on the executive committee. He held that position until 1986 when Lowe's started their expansion and was named senior executive vice president of real estate until his retirement in January 1990. During his employment the company expanded from 6 stores to 386 stores.
After retirement from Lowe's, he joined with several other local businessmen in organizing Wilkes National Bank, later renamed Northwestern Bank and Community Bank Shares, Inc. the holding company for the bank. Dwight was a founding director of the bank and chaired the holding company board for 9 years. Also he served on the board of directors of The Health Foundation, and was a lifetime member of the board of trustees of the Wilkes Heritage Museum. He was a former director of Wilkes Chamber of Commerce. One of the hobbies that brought him great pleasure was the restoration of a 1966 and 1969 Ford Mustang.

Dwight was a lifelong resident of Wilkesboro except for twelve years he was manager of Lowe's of Sparta and Richmond. During his lifetime he did much to improve the lives of the residents of Wilkes County and North Carolina.

Dwight funded the Anne Eller Pardue Scholarship at Wake Forest which benefits North Carolina residents studying to become doctors and contributed to the expansion of the Baptist Hospital cancer center. Throughout the years he has also supported Mars Hill College, Wilkes Community College, the Yadkin River Greenway, the Ruby Pardue Blackburn Adult Day Care Center along with Wilkes County school system. He was a big advocate for education.

I'm sure there are many more causes Dwight has supported during the years that are not publicly known because he was a very private person.
Sadly, he passed away March 31, 2013.