Dwight Trahin was born in Fayetteville and graduated from Siloam Springs High School in 1942. During World War II, he worked for the Army Corps of Engineers at Tulsa, OK. Dwight attended the University of Arkansas and became a member of Alpha Chi Sigma, AIChE, and ACS. While attending school, he also worked for a semester at Phillips Petroleum in Bartlesville, OK. He graduated with a BSChE in 1949. After graduation, Dwight went to work for Eagle-Picher. He was instrumental in developing manufacturing and recovery processes for boron, lithium, germanium and gallium and was named president of the Specialty Materials Division in 1978. He retired from Eagle-Picher in 1988.

Arkansas Academy of Chemical Engineers Honorary Member, 2008