Dwight Merrill
Dwight is a Berkeley native, a graduate of Berkeley High School and of UC Berkeley where he majored in chemistry. After graduating from UC he joined the Peace Corps and served in Venezuela for two years. Returning to the United States he enrolled at Ohio State to pursue a PhD in Organic Chemistry. At Ohio State he met his future wife Gloria, a fellow chemistry graduate student and native of the Philippines. They eventually married and each with newly minted PhDs relocated back to the Bay Area. They have lived in El Cerrito since 1975 where they raised their three children, two sons and a daughter. Dwight worked in Richmond at a small chemical company manufacturing, among other things, water treatment formulations while Gloria spent many years as a research chemist at the USDA Western Regional Research Labs in Albany. Dwight has always had an interest in public policy from a science perspective. Since 1998 Dwight has served as a member of the Stege Sanitary District Board of Directors. As a Director, he has tried to balance the need for clean water against scientific realities and budget constraints. Dwight feels especially grateful that he and Gloria live close to their twin grandsons who reside in Pinole.