The Dixon family – a legacy of leadership in our community – Baltimore Sun

It was nearly 10 years ago that Carroll County native son and community leader, Maryland State Treasurer Richard N. Dixon, passed away at the age of 74. He died on June 7, 2012. Dixon set the gold standard for representational government and constituent service. He faithfully represented the best interests of the voters of Carroll County with uncommon wisdom and uncanny common sense.

Richard Dixon’s brother, William (Bill) F. Dixon of Westminster, died March 31, 2010. He was 69. Bill was born on Aug. 31, 1940 in Westminster. Bill and Richard were the sons of the late Thomas Sr. and Maymie Dixon of Westminster.

Bill Dixon graduated from the Robert Moton Consolidated High School in 1958 and Morgan State University in 1962 with a Bachelor of Science degree in microbiology. He attended the University of Maryland graduate school, where he pursued studies in advanced microbiology.

Bill Dixon retired in 2002 from the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, where he worked for 39 years as program director for the Division of Virology and Immunology.

It was standing room only on April 6, 2010, when our community filled Pritts Funeral Home Chapel to pay their last respects to Bill Dixon. At the memorial service, my Westminster High School friend and classmate, Larry Smith, looked around the room and said it was like a reunion.

Indeed, it was a reunion of Westminster leaders who had gathered to celebrate Bill Dixon’s life. Folks like community leader Bernard Jones, former Del. Lanny Harchenhorn, and Dr. Francis Gates, who was the principal of the segregated Robert Moton Consolidated High School from 1952 to 1960, were among the many familiar faces in the room.

There were many tears, smiles, and laughs. Bill Dixon was known for his fondness for jelly beans and more than one person whispered to me that they had sneaked some jelly beans into Dixon’s coffin.

Bill’s son, Jeff Dixon passed away Nov. 4, 2018. He was 44. Jeff attended Westminster High School. He went on to graduate from the United States Naval Academy with a degree in aeronautical engineering in 1996.

Jeff Dixon served a multiyear deployment to the Middle East aboard the guided missile cruiser USS Stout, which was included in the USS Enterprise Battle Group. He left the Navy with the rank of lieutenant and went to work for the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab. During that time, he also obtained his master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University in systems engineering in 2008.

In a tribute published in The Baltimore Sun on June 10, 2012, Dan Rodricks and Michael Dresser explained that Richard Dixon, Jeff Dixon’s uncle, was “a Carroll County custodian’s son who combined financial expertise as a stockbroker with political savvy as a state delegate to become Maryland’s first African-American treasurer. …

“Dixon, a conservative Democrat in an overwhelmingly white and increasingly Republican Carroll County, served in the Maryland House of Delegates for 14 years. Carroll voters have sent no Democratic legislator to Annapolis since Mr. Dixon’s fourth and last election, in 1994,” Rodricks and Dresser reported.

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On March 5, 2010, Richard Dixon’s son, Tim Dixon, an attorney with Carroll County government, explained at an author’s book talk at the 13th annual Random House Book Fair that his father “went from raising chickens and hogs in his backyard to investing billions of dollars for the State of Maryland. …”

Richard Dixon was a Vietnam combat veteran who served on the Carroll County school board from 1970 to 1978. He was elected as a delegate from Carroll County to the Maryland General Assembly, serving from 1982 to 1996. He served as state treasurer from 1996 until 2002 when he retired for health reasons.

According to an article in the Carroll County Times by Sara Bott on Feb. 18, 2007, Jeff Dixon’s grandmother, (Richard and Bill’s mother,) Maymie Dixon, was “a longtime resident of Westminster, [who] grew up on Charles Street” when it was a dirt road, without streetlights, water or sewer service. Maymie Dixon, known by many as the mayor of Charles Street, “helped organize the drive to shed light on the road in the late 1950s and early ‘60s. …” Maymie Dixon worked with my father-in-law, Westminster Council President Dave Babylon, to annex Charles Street into the city and provide the needed infrastructure improvements.

“As an activist,” according to Bott, “Maymie, along with other Black women in the 1950s, fought for equal rights in Westminster… [Maymie Dixon] was a pioneer in the civil rights movement and a member of the Service and Pleasure Club. The club consisted of women who fought for schools, indoor restroom facilities, and lights along the roads. …”

I am proud to say that I considered all three generations of Dixon family to be friends. When I served as the mayor of Westminster from 2001-2005, I consulted with them on a regular basis for guidance and insights. They represented a bygone era of leadership that helped shape Carroll County into the community it is today. We all owe them a debt of gratitude.

Carroll County has been fortunate to have many native sons and daughters, like generations of the Dixon family, who have made a difference in our community. Their accomplishments are the stuff of legend, but their day-to-day struggle to make a difference is the stuff of great sacrifice and all-too-frequent heartbreak.

Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster. His Time Flies column appears every Sunday. Email him at kevindayhoff@gmail.com.