In the words of his son Jerry, no one comes close to matching Rod Dixon’s dedication to the U.
Even though Dixon graduated from the U with a business degree more than 50 years ago, he continued taking classes until his final weeks. Dixon was hospitalized last month with cancer at the Veteran Affairs Medical Center and died March 23 at age 86. He is survived by his sister Peggy, his daughter Darcy, his sons Jerry, Mike and Todd, and his nieces, nephews and seven grandchildren.
“He wanted to be around young people8212;he wanted to learn,” said Jerry Dixon.
Rod Dixon took courses in philosophy, which he taught during his professorship at the U in the 1960s. When he was in need of some exercise, Dixon enrolled in dancing classes. When he died, Dixon was attending the S. J. Quinney College of Law.
Dixon’s love for the U wasn’t limited to the classroom. He lived in the Shoreline Ridge student apartments, and was a common sight around the Heritage Center, always willing and wanting to strike up a conversation with a fellow student and make a new friend. He loved to see young people realize their dreams, Jerry Dixon said.
It took World War II to pull Dixon away from the U. His brief recess with the Army lasted three years. Even while posted thousands of miles away in the Pacific, he was a quick study, rising in the ranks to become a second lieutenant quartermaster before his return to American soil. After the war, Dixon attended Washington University to earn a law degree. He returned to Utah and resumed attending the U, becoming a mining lawyer and a businessman dealing in geothermal and oil shale development. He developed a patent for extracting oil out of shale using nuclear fission, an achievement that immortalized him in the pages of Life Magazine, his son said.
His name will also live on in the Rod P. Dixon Lectureship in the philosophy department, which his son established almost 10 years ago. The lectureship met the day Dixon died. The guest lecturer, William Sinnott-Armstrong, said Dixon challenged students to think about the changing landscape of philosophy and morality.
Less than a mile away, a lifelong lover of the U’s academic challenges would have been happy to accept the challenge.
