John Sloan Dickey, Jr.

QUEBRADILLAS, PUERTO RICO — John Sloan Dickey, Jr., scientist, professor, administrator, author, and poet, died of cancer at his home in Puerto Rico on October 8, 2019. Born January 24, 1941 in Washington, D.C. to Christina M. and John S. Dickey (Dartmouth’s 12th president), he grew up in Hanover, graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy, and earned his A.B. in geology from Dartmouth College in 1963. While a student at Dartmouth, he was a member of the acclaimed Dartmouth ski team under legendary coach Walter Prager. He traveled to New Zealand on a Fulbright scholarship, earning a M.Sc. from the University of Otago, followed by studies at Princeton University, where he earned his Ph.D. in geological and geophysical sciences. A member of the research team at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass. that first examined the moon rocks from Apollo 11 in 1969, Dickey went on to hold positions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Assistant Professor), the National Science Foundation (Program Director), Syracuse University (Chair of Geology), Trinity University in San Antonio (Dean of Science, Math, and Engineering), and the American Geophysical Union (Director of Outreach and Research Support). In addition to numerous scholarly and policy publications, Dickey authored “On the Rocks” (Wiley, 1988), a book about the earth and planetary sciences for the general public, and two collections of poetry: “Quebradillas” (AuthorHouse, 2011; Fourth Edition forthcoming), lyric poems about rural life, and “Adrift Among the Stars” (JoSara, 2017), an epic poem about the Earth and solar system and a PenCraft Award 1st Place winner. He is survived by his wife Lynn and their 5 dogs (Lizzie, Daisy, Shirley Temple, Conchita, and Ricky), sister Christina Stearns, nieces Christina Drescher and Sarah Stearns, son Nathaniel, and grandchildren Margaret and Benjamin. He was preceded in death by his parents and his sister Sylvia.

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