May 9, 2022 – It is with great sadness that we report the news of DeWight Titus passing last week. “DeWight was a legend, mentor, and hero to so many still in our industry today. He will be forever missed” said Scott Adams Repertoire Magazine.
Titus was part of the inaugural class to go into the Medical Distribution Hall of Fame.
A pharmacist by training, he molded his family’s company in Southern California – F.D. Titus & Sons – into a model for hundreds of other local and regional distributors in the 1970s, 80s and 90s. The company set a standard for growth, profitability, sales and service excellence, and manufacturer/distributor relationships, and led the country’s suppliers in learning how to adapt to and serve physicians in a growing managed care market.
Titus is recognized for sharing his knowledge freely with friends and competitors alike. He served as the Health Industry Distributors Association chairman in 1983, and was two-time chairman of the HIDA Educational Foundation. He was largely responsible for rejuvenating the HIDA Educational Foundation and creating the HIDA Executive Conference.
He began working in the pharmacy business at F.D. Titus & Sons in 1958. In 1972, he was called on to lead the company’s entry into med/surg distribution. As president, he orchestrated a series of strategic acquisitions, and grew the company into a $170 million organization with customers in California, Nevada, Arizona and southern Oregon, prior to selling it to General Medical in 1994.
He is credited with exercising an open management style and fostering respect for manufacturers in the company. Titus seized upon the needs of emerging IDNs and physician practice management companies in the 1980s, helping them cope with the new rules of Southern California’s growing managed care market.