William Emory "Bill" Dickson Sr.

William "Bill" Emory Dickson, Sr., born July 10, 1929, went to meet his Lord and Savior on October 12, 2025. He was born in Greenville, MS to Gladys Mann Dickson and Cyprian Cross Dickson.
Bill grew up in Shaw, MS as part of a ginning family. He loved working at the cotton gin and farming with his father and uncle while in high school. He graduated from Shaw High School in 1947, where he won two Delta singles tennis tournaments. He bought his first car, a 1941 Pontiac, during his junior year, and traveled measuring cotton land in the Mississippi Delta for the USDA. He had been driving since he was 12 years old. He graduated from Mississippi State University in 1951 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, with an emphasis on Agricultural Engineering.
With an ongoing love of tennis, he played three years for MSU. Two weeks after graduation, he accepted a position in civil service at Redstone Arsenal, which later became the National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA). His career began focused on engine and subsystem design and testing under the direction of Werner Von Braun and his German team. He eventually retired in 1995, after 44 years with NASA, working at the Neutral Buoyancy Simulation training astronauts for the Skylab Missions, Apollo Lunar Landing Program, and Space Shuttle Main Engine.
Immediately following his retirement, at the urging of Carl A. Grote, MD, he accepted a position as volunteer engineer at Huntsville Hospital and assigned the task of planning, designing and engineering a connector between several hospital facilities, now known as the Huntsville Hospital Tram System. Following the tram opening in 2002, he served as the liaison in the design of an offsite hospital laundry which would later serve seven to eight affiliated hospitals in North Alabama. He also played a key role in the sterile processing facilities, the Distribution Center in Cummings Research Park, which was named in his honor, and the Mobile Medical Unit. He retired from HH in 2020 at the onset of COVID at the age of 90. Also, during this time, he served weekly as a Docent for the US Space and Rocket Center.
In 1959, he married Beverly Jumper Dickson and together they had three children, William E. Dickson, Jr, Donna Dickson Smith and Carl Allan Dickson. They attended Trinity United Methodist Church while raising their children, then transferred to Whitesburg Baptist Church in the early 1990's, where he served as a Deacon and was active in the Sunday School Class. Whoever he met, he always had a story to tell of his many experiences and adventures of his life. He was known as a kind, soft-spoken man with a wealth of knowledge and always a good story to tell. He loved God, his family and Mississippi State.
Survivors include his wife of 66 years, Beverly Jumper Dickson; one child, Donna Dickson Smith of Huntsville, AL; one daughter-in-law, Mary Kirkland Dickson of Olathe, SC; four grandchildren, Ashley Hannah Smith of Huntsville, Cyprian Clay Dickson (Alex) of Charlotte, NC, Sydney Smith Howard (Greg) of Wetumpka, AL, and Kirkland Elizabeth Dickson of Washington, D.C.; as well as five great-grandchildren, Stella, Trent, Tucker, Ben and Julia, as well as his cat, Buddy. He was preceded in death by his parents and two sons, William "Bill" Emory Dickson, Jr. and Carl Allan Dickson.
The family would like to give special thanks to the caregivers that gave of themselves to his care and safety.
Visitation will be from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. on Friday, October 17, 2025, at Whitesburg Baptist Church South Campus, with the funeral service immediately following. Burial will be in Maple Hill Cemetery.