Reverend F. Dickinson

Reverend Richard Fred Dickinson, 87, of Topeka, passed away Friday, January 7, 2022.

He was born May 6, 1934, in Alhambra, California, the son of Frederick and Elaine (Cook) Dickinson. He was a graduate of Alhambra High School and received a Bachelor's Degree in English from Bethany College (VA) in 1956. He attended the Pacific School of Religion (Berkeley), Vanderbilt University Divinity School and the San Francisco Theological Seminary and pursued a PhD in English at Syracuse University.

Reverend Dickinson began the ministry in 1960, first serving as a missionary in Tokyo, Kanazawa and Kyoto, Japan until 1969, then ministering to a succession of congregations in Syracuse (NY), Haleiwa (Oahu) and Makawao (Maui). He most recently served the First Congregational United Church of Christ in Topeka between 1995 and 2004.

Reverend Dickinson was a life-long champion of civil rights. While a student at Vanderbilt Divinity School in 1960, he worked with civil rights pioneer John Lewis, organizing sit-ins to integrate lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee. While on furlough from Japan in 1965, he saw televised reports of Alabama state troopers beating Lewis as he crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. Dickinson subsequently organized a convoy of students from the San Francisco Theological Seminary to join Lewis and Martin Luther King Jr. on the historic 54-mile voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery.

Reverend Dickinson was a life-long educator and devoted man of letters. He began his teaching career at Kanazawa University while charged with student outreach as a missionary to Japan. He subsequently taught English and composition at Syracuse University, the Kamehameha Schools (Honolulu) and, most recently, Washburn University. He pursued doctoral research on the influence of China on the poetry of Ezra Pound. And he was an avid fan of American literary giant William Faulkner, whose ancestral home in Oxford, Missouri, he and wife Becky toured in 2015.

Dick loved both music and theater. His rich baritone voice delighted congregations and enlivened holiday performances. He was an aficionado of Miles Davis, Giuseppe Verdi and Mozart. He and wife Becky were season ticket holders at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City and rarely missed a performance at the annual Sunflower Music Festival at Washburn University. Dickinson played Colonel Bluntschli in George Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man at Bethany College, the Stage Manager in Thornton Wilder's Our Town for the missionary theater in Nojiri, Japan and appeared regularly in community theater in Syracuse, New York. Through the 1970s, he organized annual summer family pilgrimages to the Shakespeare Theater in Stratford, Connecticut.

Dick played intramural football at Bethany College but excelled as a softball catcher and enjoyed both softball and tennis well into his adult years. He was an avid hiker, who navigated peaks in the Japanese Alps and the Adirondack Mountains. As a missionary, he enjoyed commuting by bicycle and negotiating high-altitude hairpin turns on a Honda motorcycle. A long-time fan of basketball and Japanese sumo, he was an eager booster of the Jayhawks and of Japanese Grand Champion Terunofuji.

Reverend Dickinson devoted his final years to family. He was absorbed in the twenty-four raised beds of his bountiful home garden, which took him back to his own father, with whom he had cultivated a Victory Garden in World War II. He was so very proud of achieving Emeritus status as a Shawnee County Master Gardener in November, 2021. To stay in touch with family and friends, Dick and Becky traveled across the U.S. and enjoyed travel to Europe and Japan. Their most favorite place to relax and hike was Estes Park.

After discovering MyHeritage online, Dick enthusiastically traced his roots back seven generations. And he worked assiduously to cement family ties forward with a phone call to each of his four children every Sunday for the past twenty years. Showered at the end with calls from his children from four corners of the earth, he declared to wife Becky, "I may not be here tomorrow, but I'm sure glad I was here today."

Dick married Becky Robb Wolfe on June 3, 1998 in Topeka, Kansas. She survives in Topeka. Other survivors include sister Carol Hagedorn; children Jeni Martinez, Fred Dickinson, Liz Blancke and Chako Dickinson Morgan; grandchildren Keagan and Aaron Blancke, Alyssa and Ian Dickinson, Devin and Cody Martinez, and Kai, Evie, and Kilian Morgan. Great-grandchildren include Roman and Addie Blancke. He is also survived by stepsons, David (Natalie) Wolfe and Chris (Natalie) Wolfe and three step grandchildren, Holden and Daisy Wolfe and Hazel Wolfe.

He was preceded in death by his parents.

Honoring his request, Dick was cremated. A Celebration of Life will be held at 11:00 a.m., Saturday, August 6th, at First Congregational Church, 1701 SW Collins Ave, Topeka, KS 66604. Penwell-Gabel Cremations, Funerals & Receptions in Topeka is assisting the family.

Memorial contributions may be made to First Congregational Church, Washburn University-King Lecture Series, or the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

To leave a special message for Pastor Dickinson's family, please visit the guestbook below.