Our beloved Dean Arlyn Sowards passed away peacefully surrounded by his wife and four children on April 29th, in Chattaroy, Washington. He was 63.

Born in National City, California, on June 22nd, 1958, Dean and his family soon moved to Malone, New York, where his father, Arlyn, was transferred to Customs and Immigration. In 1971, Arlyn accepted a position in Northport, Washington, and Dean called Northport home until attending Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and moving to Northern California, before settling in Spokane.

Dean married the love of his life, Brenda, at the La Amor Chapel in Las Vegas, Nevada, on March 15th, 1991. Brenda was serving in Desert Storm for the Air National Guard, and the two eloped in Sin City – Brenda in a wedding dress Dean had just bought her after the airline lost her luggage. The happy newlyweds lived in the Spokane area and blended two children, Sarah and Spenser, with Dean’s two boys, Derek and Peter. Dean and Brenda moved to Arizona in 2011, with Sarah and Spenser, when fate drew the family to the Grand Canyon State.

A singularly positive human being, Dean excelled in life, sports, and business, largely due to his fiercely competitive nature, a trait passed down to his four children. He was an accomplished professional racquetball player, achieving national sponsorships and earning a pair of silver medals at the Men’s Doubles Racquetball National Championships, with playing partner and life-long friend, Mike Richter. Traveling the northwest with his children usually in tow, he was well known at every racquetball club and won dozens of amateur tournaments.

Coaching was Dean’s true talent, whose unparalleled success in the Spokane Pony Baseball League spurred rule changes to level the proverbial playing field. Dean won multiple Spokane city championships coaching both of his eldest boys, Derek and Peter, as well as nearly every all-star tournament entered in Canada and the northwestern United States.

But his greatest feat was thriving in the face of the utmost adversity, when Dean said “f--- cancer” and became an IRONMAN after completing the 140.6-mile endurance event in Tempe, Arizona, in 2017. He was initially diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2015, and up until that day, he’d rarely been sick a day in his life. In August of 2018, the cancer had spread to more than a dozen areas in his body. But forever the competitor, and despite being given 24-36 months to live, Dean raced in five more full IRONMAN events, and six half IRONMANs.

Dean loved his family above all. He wore the love of his family on his sleeve – or on his back, in the shape of a family tree tattoo, to be more accurate. He is survived by his devoted wife, Brenda; his children, Derek, Peter (Sarah), Sarah (Evan), and Spenser; his grandchildren, Kaitlyn and Jaaron; his mother, Cynthia; his siblings, Loretta (David), David, and Brooks (Dee); and his dogs, Calvin, Hobbes, Ferris, Susie, and Sunny.

Stuart Scott, a veteran anchor of ESPN who fought a seven-year battle with cancer, said, “When you die, that does not mean you lose to cancer. You beat cancer by how you live, why you live, and the manner in which you live.” Dean beat cancer every day with how he attacked and persevered through every ride, race, treatment, and surgery. He laughed his signature laugh, and flashed his familiar, beaming smile, through it all.

A celebration of Dean’s life will be held on Wednesday, May 4th, at Chewelah Golf & Country Club, from 4:30-8pm. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Fxck Cancer Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, whose mission is “To fight cancer by raising awareness and to educate about early cancer detection, ultimately putting an end to late-stage cancer diagnosis.” For more information and to donate, please visit www.FxckCancer.org.

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