Reverend Bonneau H. Dickson Sr.

Family-Placed Death Notice

REVEREND BONNEAU H. DICKSON, SR. The Reverend Bonneau H. Dickson, Sr., died Friday morning July 13, 2007 at the Presbyterian Village Rehabilitation Center in Austell, Ga., from complications following a broken hip. He was almost 100 years old. He was born in Pickens, S.C., a town named for his ancestor, General Andrew Pickens who fought in the War for Independence. His family have been South Carolinians for many generations. He was a member of the French Huguenot Society of South Carolina. He was reared in Seneca, S.C., the seventh child of William Patrick and Louanna Norris Dickson. He was orphaned in childhood due to the deaths of his father in a railroad accident and his mother to diabetes. He was descended from many generations of Presbyterians stretching back over the centuries from America to Northern Ireland, Scotland, England and France. He graduated from Presbyterian College in 1929, South Carolina, and graduated in 1933 from Columbia Theological Seminary at the head of his class and was the recipient of the Wilds Book Prize, awarded to the highest student in academic work over the entire seminary program. In 1933 he was ordained as a Presbyterian minister by the Presbytery of Charleston, S.C., and began his ministry at the New Wappetaw Presbyterian Church in McClellanville, S.C., where he met and married his distant cousin Elizabeth Legare Beckman. He served as Chapels Minister of the Independent Presbyterian Church of Savannah, Ga., from 1935 to 1942. In the early days of America's entry into World War II he came to Atlanta, Ga., where he served as the pastor of the historic Rock Spring Presbyterian Church for 14 years. Between the manse and the Church on Piedmont Road in what is now close-in Atlanta he planted a Victory Garden during the war and raised a flock of eclectic chickens. He was awarded a Doctor of Divinity degree by Presbyterian College in 1956. He served as Executive Secretary of Church Extension for Atlanta Presbytery from 1956-1960 and subsequently as Executive Secretary of that Presbytery until his retirement in 1973. His prime responsibility was the creation of new parishes of the Presbytery. This was a period of astonishing growth in the Presbyterian Church in Atlanta which has historically been a center of Presbyterian strength in the United States and during his service Atlanta Presbytery grew to have one of the largest number of communicants of any presbytery in the world. His "retirement" in 1973 ushered in an exceptional extension of his ministry. During the first 8 years of his retirement he was engaged in a succession of fruitful interim pastorates serving as temporary pastor of may parishes without clergy in Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina. In 1981 Dr. Dickson joined the Development/Public Relations Staff of Columbia Theological Seminary. This proved to be a fulfilling late-life vocation for him. Fellow workers became a family for him. He cherished the office space, the "Field Representative" title and his place on the seminary's Founders List. In 1992 he was honored with the Alumni Distinguished Service Award. In the winter of 2004 he fell and broke his hip. He refused surgery and opted to allow the bone to heal naturally, a hugely painful process which he bore with his accustomed stoicism. This proved successful but it was no longer feasible for him to remain in his home on Princeton Way in the Druid Hills neighborhood of Atlanta so he moved in March, 2004, to Presbyterian Village, a retirement home, in Austell, Ga., where he lived until his death. Dr. Dickson was a keen gardener. He loved camellias and served as President of the Camellia Society in Atlanta as well as the Buckhead Men's Garden Club. He cultivated, rooted and grafted them and gave away hundreds if not thousands of camellias over the course of his involvement with this avocation. On July 23, 1935, he married Elizabeth Legare Beckman, who was his distant cousin through shared French Huguenot ancestors, in McClellanville, S.C. This marriage proved a most happy, successful and fruitful one, as they were very suited to each other and remained devoted to each other for over 63 years. His wife predeceased him in 1998 after suffering from Alzheimer's disease for almost 20 years. He cared for her devotedly, Keeping her with him in their home at great personal sacrifice until the last few months of her disease, a remarkable testimony and example of a Christian marriage. He is survived by three sons: Bonneau H. Dickson, Jr., an engineer, in Berkeley, California; Dr. William Patrick Dickson, a professor at the University of Michigan in East Lansing, Michigan; and Sam G. Dickson, a lawyer in Atlanta, Ga., and also by four grandchildren, Andrew Peterson Dickson, Joshua Peterson Dickson, Elissa Peterson Dickson and Franzeska Dickson. A memorial service will be held at Rock Spring Presbyterian Church, 1824 Piedmont Avenue, NE, Atlanta, Ga., on Saturday, July 21 at 2:30 o'clock, the Reverend Dr. Walter Cook of McClellanville, S.C., presiding, assisted by Dr. Deborah Wells. The family will receive visitors in the Fellowship Hall of Rock Spring parish after the service. Memorial gifts may be made to the Bettie and Bonneau Dickson Scholarship Fund at Columbia Theological Seminary or to the New Wappetaw Presbyterian Church in McClellanville, S.C.