Partner in Dudley’s Bakery Dies at Age 83

Dura C. Northway, the man who built Dudley’s Bakery in Santa Ysabel, has died of heart failure at his Ramona home. He was 83.

Northway was born in San Diego and lived in San Diego County his entire life except for two years of college. He died Saturday.

While owner of two small grocery stores in El Cajon in the 1940s, Northway met Dudley Pratt and fell in love with his homemade breads.

Decades later Northway persuaded Pratt to close his small El Cajon shop and move to North County, where they opened a business that became known throughout much of Southern California.

Northway built Dudley’s Bakery in 1963 in Santa Ysabel, a small rural community some 52 miles northeast of San Diego.

Friends said he was crazy because no one would go so far out of their way to buy bread. But hundreds of thousands of people did.

Northway sold his ranch in Julian and moved to Ramona in 1976, where he spent much of his time playing clarinet for local organizations.

He is survived by his wife, Floy, and two daughters, Carla Swanson and Maurjo Reser, both of San Diego, as well as four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Services were set for 11 a.m. today in Ramona.