COEUR d’ALENE — In the future, when people stand in Dwight Bershaw Memorial Pocket Park at the base of Tubbs Hill, they will ask, “Who was he?”

David Groth knows.

“He was a big-hearted guy who gave a lot of hours toward making Coeur d’Alene an even better place to live,” the retired teacher said.

The 75 people at Tuesday’s meeting of the Sunrise Rotary Club applauded in agreement as they paid tribute to the man whose name isn’t widely known in the community, but who is famous among his friends and family for his energy, his smile, his laughter and his love for the Lake City.

“We miss him dearly,” said Groth, who was wearing a “Bershaw 2024” T-shirt, one of many printed up, along with bumper stickers, when a friend suggested he run for president.

“Do you still have a couple thousand of them, bumper stickers?” Groth asked Ali Bershaw, Dwight's widow.

“We have a lot of them,” his wife said, smiling, as laughter filled the room at The Coeur d’Alene Resort.

But it was a serious honor paid to Bershaw, who died last Aug. 20 at the age of 54.

The pocket park that will bear his name will go on the south side of McEuen Park at the base of Tubbs Hill. It will include a stone table and bench between two tamarack trees — the place where the American Legion scoreboard once stood.

It's fitting because he played American Legion ball there and his father, Jim Bershaw, umpired games there. Dwight later enjoyed walking with his kids on summer nights to watch games at the American Legion field before it was removed to make way for McEuen Park.

“It seemed like the perfect memorial location,” Parks Director Bill Greenwood said.

Ali Bershaw was pleased.

"I was so honored that it's going to be at McEuen near our house and for my kids to show their kids,” she said. “It's just a huge honor.”

Dwight Bershaw wasn’t a household name in town. He wasn’t an elected official or a business leader or an environmental activist.

What he was known for was doing what he could to make Coeur d’Alene great, a place he called home for more than 20 years.

He loved living close to downtown and going for walks. He picked up litter. He reported broken sprinkler heads. He called in the need for more trash cans.

As a landscape architect with Clearwater Summit Group, Dwight Bershaw volunteered often for garden and landscape projects around the city.

He was also a popular member of the Sunrise Rotary Club, greeting people with a handshake, hug or high five.

Rotarian LaDonna Beaumont said Bershaw was a generous, humble man.

“Everybody loved him. And the thing is, he made you feel like he was your biggest fan,” she said.

Greenwood spoke of receiving calls and texts from Bershaw at all hours, letting him know of things that needed to be done.

He called him the best "professional park volunteer he ever had."

“He was a great friend of mine and I miss him very much," Greenwood said. "He was an interesting, unusual guy. His heart was bigger than anybody I've ever known.”

Aaron Rietze, landscape architect and residential project manager with Clearwater Summit Group, said work on the pocket park may begin in May.

Clearwater, where Bershaw worked for more than 20 years, is providing materials and labor for the project.

“Everyone wants to be a part of it,” Rietze said. “It’s going to be special for all of us.”

Beaumont called on club members to strive “to make a positive impact in our community" in Bershaw's memory.

"It's a good goal, to just live the way he lived and follow the example he set," she said.

Ali said her family called Dwight the mayor of Coeur d’Alene because he was such a proponent of it.

“His service to others and to the community was just huge," she said. "And what an example it has been.”

Ali said the pocket park for her husband is “beyond what we can even dream of. There are no words. He just loved Coeur d’Alene so much.”

When friends visited, he urged them to move here.

“He was Coeur d’Alene’s No. 1 fan,” she said.

Bershaw’s son, Chance, said the park memorial for his father is “perfect” being made by the same company he worked for.

“I think it's fitting the way that my dad's gonna leave a permanent impact on Coeur d’Alene,” he said.

Ali recounted a story of 30 years ago when they were living in southern Idaho, a time he told her about Coeur d’Alene.

“It’s beautiful,” Dwight Bershaw said. “I'm going to take you there.”

He did.

“He had this dream to live in downtown and make Coeur d’Alene better,” she said.

He did that, too.