Ronald Conrad Dilthey

Ronald Conrad Dilthey, beloved husband, father, grandfather, great grandfather, and trusted and helpful friend, went to be with his Lord and Savior on March 26, 2022, after a full, joyful and fruitful life. Mr. Dilthey had a distinguished career as a lawyer for over sixty years. His devotion to God, his family, and his love of the law were the foundations of his life.

Born on June 5, 1935, in Brooklyn, New York, he was the only son of Conrad Leroy Dilthey and Julia Marion Poole Dilthey. He lived with his family on Long Island, New York, until the family moved to Milford, Pennsylvania, when he was ten years old. He was a graduate of Milford High School in the class of 1953. His boyhood there was spent hunting and fishing in the Pocono Mountains.

In the fall of 1953, he came south on a Greyhound bus to Wake Forest College, now Wake Forest University, where he immediately fell in love with the south and North Carolina and never left again.

He was a graduate of Wake Forest University in the class of 1957, and a graduate from Wake Forest Law School in the class of 1960. While an undergraduate, Mr. Dilthey was a member of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity, a cadet in the R.O.T.C., a member of the WFU marching band, and a member of the Southerners Dance Band, a group of WFU students who played at dances around the state. While a student, he met the love of his life, Shirley Ann Burrus, also a student at WFU, and they were married on Thanksgiving Day, November 22, 1956, while both were students, he in law school and she a senior.

In 1960 Mr. Dilthey joined the law firm of Teague, Johnson, and Patterson in Raleigh and began his career as a trial attorney. He soon established a reputation as a leading trial attorney in central North Carolina, respected by his clients, his adversaries, and the judges before whom he appeared. As the law firm grew, it underwent many changes to become the present firm known as Patterson Dilthey. During his career, Ron was privileged to work with many outstanding lawyers, both adversaries and associates.

During his lifetime, Mr. Dilthey served his profession in numerous ways. He was a member of the American Bar Association, the North Carolina Bar Association, the Wake County Bar Association, the North Carolina State Bar, the North Carolina Association of Defense Attorneys, the Defense Research Institute, and the Phi Delta Phi Legal Fraternity. He served as Chairman of the North Carolina Bar Association Committee on Medico – Legal Liaison, Chairman of the North Carolina Bar Association Litigation Section, Chairman of the North Carolina Bar Association of Justice Commission, Co-Chairman of the North Carolina Bar Association Administration of Justice Study Task Force, served two terms on the Board of Governors of the North Carolina Bar Association, and served two years as Vice President of the North Carolina Bar Association. He was a charter member of the North Carolina Association of Defense Attorneys. Additionally, he served as a member of many committees involved with his profession. He was a member of the Senior Lawyers Division and the Senior Survivors, an organization of local experienced lawyers. He was a permanent member of the Fourth Circuit Judicial Conference.

Mr. Dilthey shared his knowledge of law by being a lecturer at the National Institute of Trial Advocacy at the University of North Carolina School of Law; the North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers; the North Carolina Association of Defense Attorneys; the North Carolina Court of Appeals (CLE); the North Carolina/South Carolina Fellows of the American College of Trial Attorneys at Sea Pines, Georgia; North Carolina Bar Association CLE program; and for nearly thirty years he taught an annual course for the new North Carolina attorneys at the North Carolina Bar Association Skills Course. For ten years he was a judge for the National Moot Court Competition in Richmond, Virginia.

In 1978 he began teaching at Campbell Law School in the areas of worker’s compensation and civil litigation trial techniques that was supposed to be a one year contribution to aid Campbell Law in their accreditation, but the course was so popular that he continued teaching for thirty-five years as an adjunct professor. In 2019 Campbell University Law School honored him by dedicating their new Advocacy Suite in his honor at a ribbon cutting and reception.

Mr. Dilthey was selected by his peers to be included in Best Lawyers in America since the book was first published in 1983 and in every subsequent issue. Limited to less than 1% of the nation’s lawyers, he was recognized for Personal Injury Litigation, Product Liability Litigations, and Professional Malpractice Defense. He was consistently included in Super Lawyers, determined by peer review, and was selected as Top 100 North Carolina Super Lawyers by that publication. Business North Carolina named him a “Legal Elite” for the state of North Carolina in the area of litigation.

In 1988 Mr. Dilthey was nominated and elected a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, one of the premier professional organizations composed of preeminent trial lawyers from the United States and Canada. Less than 1% of trial lawyers in the nation are extended an invitation to the American College of Trial Lawyers.

In 2001, Mr. Dilthey was inducted into the Delaware Valley, Pennsylvania, Hall of Fame for Professional Achievement.

Mr. Dilthey served his country in the U.S. Army in the Military Police Corps. He completed his commitment in the U.S. Army Reserves, attaining the rank of Captain. He was very proud to have served his country.

Mr. Dilthey loved his Lord and his Church. A member of Edenton Street United Methodist Church and the Francis Asbury Sunday School Class since 1960, he served the church in a number of capacities. Among his contributions were serving as Chairman of the Living Memorial Scholarship Fund, serving on the Administrative Board, serving as an usher, teaching Sunday school, and serving as Chairman of the 1996 Stewardship Campaign. A source of great joy in his life was his participation in Bible Study Fellowship, a non-denominational worldwide Bible study since the men’s group in Raleigh was formed in 1982. For more than 35 years, he served as a BSF group leader and cherished the association with “his men” and the other leaders. He truly lived his Christian faith in his daily walk and law practice.

Ron loved his adopted state. Governor James B. Hunt appointed him to the Brown Lung Study Commission and to the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission where he served during the nineteen-nineties. An enthusiastic fisherman, he loved his time at his home in Atlantic Beach, and being out on his boat. He loved Bingo Night at the Coral Bay Club with his grandchildren. He thoroughly enjoyed his membership on “The Wake Forest Fishing Team,” a group of WFU lawyers and judges of approximately the same age who gathered twice annually at Durant Island to fish, eat and swap stories. Ron enjoyed a lifelong friendship with his Kappa Sigma brothers and their wives, and was instrumental in keeping them in touch for their yearly trip back to the old campus in Wake Forest, North Carolina, for a weekend reunion.

Ron loved his family and was the spiritual leader and generous supporter of each member of his family. He is survived by his wife of 65 years, daughter Debbie Dilthey Seipp and husband Harry, and by his four precious grandchildren: Elizabeth Seipp, David Seipp, Ashley Chase Stephenson and husband Timothy, and Caroline Burrus Sink, and he was the devoted great grandfather to Davis Stephenson. He was predeceased by his parents, his sister Gail Dilthey Field, his mother and father in-law Everette and Marie Burrus and by his beloved daughter Lauren Dilthey Sink.

His presence in the lives of those he loved will always be felt. They have been blessed by his guidance and care and Godly approach to life. During his life he has been privileged by virtue of his career to be of service to a great many people, and once they were a part of his life or on his prayer list, he remembered them forever.

Funeral services will be held at Edenton Street United Methodist Church on Saturday April 2, 2022 at 11:00 AM. Visitation with the family will follow the service in the Garden Gallery. For those unable to attend the service in person, the service will be livestreamed. Please use the link below to view the service online. Esumc.org/live

For those who wish to send a memorial, the family suggests The Living Memorial Scholarship Fund, Edenton Street United Methodist Church, 228 West Edenton Street, Raleigh, North Carolina 27603, Campbell University Law School or Wake Forest University Law School.

Services provided by Brown-Wynne, 300 St. Mary's Street, Raleigh.