Knoxville News Sentinel

Long-time agriculture educator, Dr. Dickson, dies

August 17, 2000

Visitation and services will be Friday for Dr. Lewis H. Dickson, a 42-year agriculture educator and administrator who directed international agricultural programs in India.

The family will receive friends from noon to 1:30 p.m. Friday at Church Street United Methodist Church, with the funeral service at 2 p.m. Friday at the church.

Dr. Dickson, who was 79, died Tuesday. He'd recently been diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's) Disease.

A member of Church Street United Methodist Church and Murphy Builder's Sunday School class, Dr. Dickson sang in the church choir for many years. He was also a past director and president of the South Knoxville Rotary Club and was a former member and officer of Lion's International.

After serving in the U.S. Army Air Corps as a pilot and flight instructor during World War II, he joined the extension staff as assistant county agent in soil conservation in Houston County in 1946. Four years later, he became a member of the University of Tennessee staff in Knoxville as an instructor in the Department of Agronomy. In 1961, he was heading up training and studies.

The highlight of his career, however, began in January 1966, when he served a seven-year stint as director of international agricultural programs. He helped recruit a staff of U.S. scientists that established land grant-type colleges of agriculture in India.

From 1973 to 1975, he served as director of Extension personnel, and he later resumed his role as director of international agricultural programs for another five years until 1983.

After a 42-year UT career, he was named professor emeritus for the agricultural and Extension education when he retired in 1988.

Survivors include his wife of 58 years, Sara Waller Dickson of Knoxville; a son and daughter-in-law, Lewis H. Dickson Jr. and Deborah Lohman Dickson of Peachtree City, Ga.; and a daughter and son-in-law, Nancy Dickson Compton and Stephen Laurence Compton of Edgewater, Md.

Memorials may be made to Baptist Hospice, P.O. Box 22, Knoxville, Tenn., 37901, or Church Street United Methodist Church, 900 Henley St., Knoxville, Tenn., 37902.