John S. Dickey Jr. ’63
John S. Dickey Jr. ’63, scientist, author, and poet, died at his home in Quebradillas, Puerto Rico, of cancer on October 8, 2019. He was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in Hanover. He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy, where he was captain of the ski team. At Dartmouth John majored in earth sciences and geology and was a member of the Geological Society, the DOC, and the ski team. He was a brother of Theta Delta Chi. After Dartmouth John earned his M.S. (and a Fulbright scholarship) from the University of Otago in New Zealand and a Ph.D. from Princeton, both in earth sciences and geology. He was a member of the Smithsonian research team that first examined the moon rocks from Apollo 11, and his career included positions at MIT, the National Science Foundation, Syracuse University (as chair of geology), Trinity University of San Antonio, Texas (as chair of science, math, and engineering), and the American Geophysical Union. In addition to scholarly articles, John wrote On the Rocks, a book about the earth and planetary sciences, and two collections of poetry, Quebradillas, about rural life, and Adrift Among the Stars, an epic poem about the earth and solar system that won the Pencraft Award. John is survived by his wife, Lynn, son Nathaniel, two grandchildren, and sister Christina.
