Gary H. Dietrich, a longtime Bismarck businessman, had an ongoing competition every morning with his two daughters as they were growing up.The challenge was to see who would be the first one in the morning to remember to yell out the words, "Thank God I'm alive."

Tami Dobbs, 29, remembers she and her sister, Danya, literally would run to their parents' bedroom door in the morning, trying to be the first to yell it out.

She said it was one of her bubbly dad's ways of trying to instill a zest for life in them.

"He was very bubbly, full of life,"said his wife, Betty Dietrich, on Friday.

Now, Dobbs is passing on her dad's "Thank God …" ritual to her son, Tanner, 2. She has to be the one. Her dad can't.

Dietrich died March 1, 2006, at 59 after a 1½-year fight with cancer.

So that he won't be forgotten, the family started a golf tournament in honor of the avid golfer. The second annual Gary H. Dietrich "Do Over" Golf Classic will take place Friday at Hawktree Golf Club. There's room for more teams, and proceeds will benefit Teen Challenge, a local substance abuse treatment program. Dietrich, a recovered alcoholic, had become familiar with Teen Challenge and wanted to help the program.

But that was about the time he became sick, so he couldn't.

He thought he'd be able to. He thought right up until almost the end that he would live, family members said.

And he kept his zest for life, "He was always positive,"his wife said.

He was still playing golf in Arizona about six months before he died.

And in February 2006, noticeably weak when he got off a plane, he patted Dobbs' hand and told her he was going to live, that they'd get through this - even though doctors had just told him he didn't have much time left.

Dobbs remembers after he died, she was taking care of some things and was at the post office to close his post office box. While there, an employee told Dobbs she looked forward to seeing Gary Dietrich when he came in every day, because he was always so happy and made her day.

Happy Dietrich did have his own hurdles to overcome.

Dietrich had an alcohol abuse problem for years. And while he struggled with it - coming home after drinking sometimes and passing out, and being caught sometimes and arrested for several DUIs - Betty Dietrich kept everything going, the marriage, the family, the family business, which was Dietrich Sanitary Service, said Dobbs.

Betty Dietrich said things got so bad at times, she thought about divorce. But he stopped drinking - about 23 years ago.

Betty Dietrich said a local recovery program helped. But she said she remembers it was when he got on his knees and asked God to take away his desire for drinking that his need for it stopped - right then.

After retirement in 1996, he stayed busy, and not with the television, said a nephew, Dave Glaser, of Bismarck.

"He never watched TV," Glaser said.

Dietrich was a golfer, a competitor in cutting horse events and a hunter, and hunted not only here, but around the world - Afghanistan, China and other locations. And he inspired the people around him, Glaser said.

Glaser misses his cheerleading.

"He was the guy who would tell you 'You can do whatever you want to do,'" Glaser said. "He was always pushing you to be everything you can be. Now it's missing. Anyone who was friends with Gary is missing that now."

But there is a little boy at Dobbs' house who starts the morning yelling, "Thank God I'm alive."

Friday's tournament is called the "Do Over" because players get a "do over" on each hole, the way Gary Dietrich liked to play. And it's called that because proceeds will help the Teen Challenge program help people get a "do-over"in life, Glaser said.

For tournament information, call Glaser at 226-4015 or visit http://www.garyhdietrichmemorial.com

(Reach reporter Virginia Grantier at 250-8254 or at virginia.grantier@;bismarcktribune.com.)