Lasting Memories

Dale Flint Dickinson
Oct. 11, 1933-July 23, 2017
Menlo Park, CA
Submitted by Ann Dinger Dickinson

Dale Flint Dickinson of Menlo Park, California, passed away on July 23, 2017, after a long battle with Lewy Body Dementia. Dale was born October 11, 1933, in Galveston, Texas, the only child of Andrew Flint Dickinson and Leona Minnie Warner Dickinson.

Dale graduated from Ball High School in 1950, and then spent one year at Schreiner University before transferring to the University of Texas at Austin. He graduated in 1955 with a degree in Petroleum Engineering.

While at Texas, Dale decided that Mathematics and Physics were his true loves. He entered the Physics graduate program at the University of California Berkeley but was quickly drafted. Dale spent two years in the U.S. Navy as an electronics technician, and then re-enrolled at Berkeley in 1957. Dale completed his Ph.D. in nuclear physics in December 1964 and spent the next 10 months traveling around the world with his first wife, Leslie Bryan, with whom he later had two daughters.

Dale's early interest in Astronomy was re-kindled after he returned to Berkeley, and in 1967 he accepted a position with the Radio Astronomy group at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dale's research at SAO was primarily in the areas of molecular line observations of gas clouds and stellar masers. He authored 66 articles in professional journals, and 11 in popular astronomy magazines. Dale also taught several courses for the Harvard Astronomy Department.

Dale met Ann Dinger, his second wife, in 1973, at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society. They were married November 26, 1977, in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Dale and Ann spent a year as visiting professors at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and then moved to Pasadena, California, where Dale held a National Research Council Fellowship at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Dale and Ann moved to Menlo Park in 1982 with their two sons. Dale worked at the Applied Technology division of Litton Industries for 16 months before moving to Lockheed's Palo Alto Research Lab in 1984. Dale obtained various grants to continue his astronomical research while working for Lockheed. Dale retired from Lockheed in 2000, and then worked part-time for Polar Magnetics Corporation until 2004.

Dale loved to travel the world and pepper his friends with postcards from exotic locations. He was happiest in the mountains, either hiking or skiing. He and Ann visited places as diverse as Iceland, Tibet, Turkey, and Tierra del Fuego. Dale also trekked in Nepal and India, as well as on Baffin Island.

Dale is survived by his wife Ann, 4 children, Kelly, Tracy, Geoffrey, and Derek, and 4 grandchildren, Ava, Alex, Harlan, and Marlow. The family fondly remembers his off-beat sense of humor, his penchant for taking the scenic route (aka doodling around), and his love of skiing. Skiing magazine published his column, "A Ski Child's Mother Goose," in 1988. Everyone in the family skis or snowboards, except for Marlow, who is just learning to walk.

In accord with Dale's wishes, no services were held. The family will be scattering his ashes at mountain locations he loved.