“It's a funny thing...” Dean started off.

"Despite the grit, the almost unbearable pain of self-inflicted rehab, sheer determination instilled in me by Dad, an unwavering faith in God, and my ability to obtain my desires instilled in me by Mother - it wasn’t enough. I hated being a prisoner to the system of employment for my livelihood. More than anything else in life my desire was to become a prisoner of Mother Nature. MOther NatuRE offers more."

Harold Dean Price left for the big city of Dallas in 1959. There he found and married his soulmate, the former Della Riley.

"It was only natural that our marriage was based on the phrase from Genesis, 'Cleave to his wife and they shall both become one,'" Dean reminisced.

"In everything we were one!" Dean exclaims. "That’s how I knew Della was my soulmate. Della’s and my approach to everything was based on my family’s wisdom, 'Two horses pulling a plow are never a couple, they are a team!'"
 
Despite his fulfilling family life, and success working with Braniff airlines for nearly 10 years, there was always something missing. While Della was pregnant with their second son, they agreed to put the city and its troubles behind them. The family moved in with Harold Dean’s parents on the Red River, and shortly after their second son was born.

Moving back to his Red River home was a sigh of relief. On one hand, the city could offer stability of the form of job security - on the other hand: slavery. That realization took a few more months to dawn on our Dean. Dean first made a way for his family by starting “Price Floor and Building Maintenance.”  The business was a marvelous success, and Della found work as a data entry clerk. Their hard work paid off in the form of a farmhouse, situated on 16 acres along Lake Bonham.

When the recession hit in the 1980s, pockets and purses tightened, and Price Floor and Building Maintenance folded. As Dean moved on to the next employment opportunity, something started to dawn on him. Living near the Red River was just a piece of his puzzle. What was truly missing, was making his living from the Red River.

As many of us could relate, running the rat race wasn't just wearing him down - it was robbing his soul. There had to be a better way, and for lucky Harold Dean, there was. Thanks to the will and way instilled in him by his parents, the golden pot at the end of his rainbow was nearing.

A few years of trapping up and down the Red River was a good start, but its small rewards of fishing and log cutting left Dean down in the dumps. It wasn't until a group effort by his wife and closest friends helped Dean find his new calling.

“What do you think about this willow furniture, Dean?” his friend prodded him, with his motivation close to the surface.

After an honest discussion about how unimpressive they found the furniture, they agreed that Dean could easily make something twice as functional and pleasing to the eye. With the right amount of encouragement, and a good bit of book learning, Dean found himself deep in the thickets of the Red River hunting for dogwood. Dogwood was the first of his muses for his craft, nimble and easy to come by. His father had taught him how to use the branches to make fishing nets while scouring the river for minnows.

It was in a dream that the nickname "Wildwood" first came to him. A little brown church in the peaceful wildwood, a crowd of enthusiastic parishioners, and a moment with a defining decision - signing his last piece “Wildwood Dean.” When he awakened, he shared the dream with his wife.

“Well, you’re my Wildwood Dean,” Della said.

"From that time on," Dean says, "I signed everything Wildwood Dean…it stuck."

Bit by bit, Wildwood Dean discovered his methods and his vision. With a shop that started on his wife's kitchen table, and ritualistic pot of coffee, his creativity and determination was unleashed. From Texas Stars, to one-of-a-kind rocking chairs, what he could conjure and execute seemed limitless. Getting the vision off the ground was a bumpy ride at first, one that Dean couldn’t have driven without the support of his wife, Della.

"Getting started building furniture from dogwood kept our bank account drained to zero and sometimes in the red!" admits Dean. "Della deprived herself of her desires and sometimes even necessities to help me get the Wildwood Dean business off the ground."

"I did not readily see that my childhood family -- dad, mother and brother -- all possessed determination, patience, and a jack-of-all-trades mindset," Dean says in retrospect. "Della made me realize that! Many, many times she would say, 'You are just like your dad. You are the most determined person I ever saw. You have more patience than anyone I know,' or, 'you can do anything you set your mind to just like your dad.' The things she said cemented those qualities in me. I was not going to let my family down, nor her!"

While Dean had the vision and the skills, some days the pressure of life got to him, as it does the rest of us.

“Della had the innate ability to know when I was burned out, trying to perfect a new design or filling a big order, and she would literally make me take a few days off and go to the river camping and fishing,” Dean says with gratitude in his voice. 

Those days to pause and rest would restore his motivation to continue.

It was this unwavering support and understanding that allowed Wildwood Dean to take off into soaring heights, and within a few years his name as an artisan was solidified. From festivals, markets, and gift shops, Dean began to meet important people. Those important connections turned into important work. Some of his high profile business associates included Susan Crane, Neiman Marcus, and the Dallas Arboretum where he built not only furniture, but high-end art installments.

Personal orders were flying left and right. Wildwood Dean was so busy, he had to hire help. “The highlights of my career seemed to be happening daily. It is hard to choose what ranked on top, but perhaps it was my award-winning Nanny Rocker. That was my all-time favorite accomplishment.”

For a few years, life and business was golden. As the orders flooded his workshop, one fateful night responded with flames. A late night burger with his wife and friends ended by arriving home to see his workshop engulfed in a smoky fire. Della cried the most.

This lowlight of his career wasn't enough to keep him down. Rebuilding the workshop might have been harder if Wildwood Dean wasn’t such a success. Fortunately, the new steel building replacement couldn’t get built fast enough.

A few more golden years went by before the second lowlight of his career. A massive art installment for Susan Crane was set up in the Pentagon on the fateful day of September 11, 2001. While he and the world mourned the tragedy of the 9/11 attacks, Wildwood Dean had to face consequences out of his control. Without his contract from Susan Crane, there wasn't enough work left to maintain the scale of the once-thriving business. Something had to give.

The chapter of Wildwood Dean the stick artist extraordinaire, came to a trickling conclusion, as he shifted gears to teaching and writing about his skills. The time he spent as a retired artisan has been no less colorful, returning yet again to the Red River for an adventure of legendary proportion. The details of which can be found in the delightful autobiography, The Life and Times of Wildwood Dean.

When considering what Wildwood Dean would say to those of us still searching for our pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, he said this:

“Identify the skills you have that you enjoy most! Don’t be wishy-washy, stick to the 2 or 3 that you are best at. Of all the talented people I have met, many as soon as they get really good at something, can’t wait for the next fad or challenge and never get to see the results they could achieve if they only stuck to one thing. Be consistent, stick to what you’ve invested your soul into and reap the harvest!”

For those of us dreamers that are still looking for love,  Dean cautiously warns, “Above all, there is one attribute you must use to rule out another as your soulmate: selfishness! Selfishness is easy to identify! A selfish person will never be your soulmate!”

Life handed Wildwood Dean some wild cards, of which this tribute only scratches the surface. While persistence made Wildwood Dean an unstoppable force, it is clear the thread that binds his success is the love he sought to honor.

The love that came from all of those who rallied around him, since his youth. Those whom he sought to make proud.

In a world that tells us the right thing to do - the responsible thing to do - is to work 45 hour weeks for 60 years until we can finally retire to enjoy ourselves (maybe), chasing our dreams can feel like a nightmare.

If we are lucky enough to have loving support around us, it can feel even more frightening to risk it all on our dreams because we might have someone to let down.

Wildwood Dean and his legacy serves as a poignant reminder - grit, faith, and sheer determination can get us farther than most of us have been told to believe. Farther into a distance that isn’t measured in dollar signs and escapes corporate tangibility.

Harold Dean Price, and the dreams he chose to unapologetically chase, solidified his place in history as a North Texas legend.