The article below appear Monday, May 9th, 2014:
ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Published: May 9, 2014
“The Lifetime Achievement Award is something the group rarely gives,” Michael Capaldi, the Lincoln Club’s chairman Emeritus and communications chairman, told us.
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| Dale Dykema, Lifetime Achievement Honoree |
At 84, Mr. Dykema has become a fixture in Orange County’s business, political and charitable communities, and after leading a most successful career in those three facets of life, he shows no sign of slowing.
Founding T.D. Service Financial Corp. in 1964, Mr. Dykema has been its chief executive ever since. However, while Mr. Dykema may have aged, his entrepreneurial spirit has not, as he has created dozens of businesses over his lifetime, including a few the past couple of years.
“Over 80, he is still building brand-new businesses,” Mr. Capaldi.
Notably, Mr. Dykema recently entered into a profitable venture to sell flameless candles – a technology first developed at Disneyland for famous attractions like the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean – to consumers.
Further, in the field of politics, Mr. Dykema, has been a stalwart and trendsetter for his party, a champion of women and minority candidates, for a time even sitting on the board of directors for the Orange County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and a peace broker between competing political groups.
But Mr. Dykema is probably most appreciated for his philanthropic work, active at one time or another in a litany of charitable local organizations, from the Orange County YMCA, to the Tiger Woods Learning Center Foundation and the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana.
“You’d have to look far and wide to find someone who Dale hasn’t helped,” Al Frink, a member of the Lincoln Club, told us.
One of his most memorable charitable works, however, was his generous donation to keep the Evergreen-Cedar Community Center in Santa Ana open, motivated by a column by former Register columnist Frank Mickadeit.
As detailed in a follow-up column, Mr. Mickadeit took Mr. Dykema to visit the facility, operated out of a two-bedroom apartment in an impoverished central Santa Ana neighborhood.
“I’m an entrepreneur,” Mr. Dykema was quoted as telling children at the center. “An entrepreneur is someone who likes to start businesses. I have started over 20 businesses in my career and I’ve been able to build up some wealth, and I have been able to help organizations such as this.”
He has made a career out of helping others, and we can’t think of many in Orange County who are better deserving of a lifetime achievement award such as this one.
Link to OC register article HERE
