Everett Newfon Dick, an Adventist historian, educator, administrator, and fundraiser, was born on July 10, 1898, in Ozawkie, Kansas. He was the youngest of Grandville Gentry and Hannah Frances Smalley Dick's (1859-1956; 1860-1934) four sons. Dick's brother Ernest Delbert Dick served as Secretary of the General Conference from 1936 to 1952. His brother, Arthur C. Dick, was the father of Adventist pastor and educator Avery Varner Dick and grandfather of Ardis Dick Stenbakken, former Women's Ministry Director for the General Conference.
Although both of Dick's parents were born in Kentucky, his father was of Scotch-Irish descent and his mother's family hailed from New England. The Dick family made several moves west from Kentucky to the Missouri-Kansas frontier before Everett Dick's birth. In 1908, the family finally settled near La Harpe, Kansas, where they raised Hereford cattle. The Dicks joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Ozawkie, Kansas, in 1889, just before construction began on Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska.The Dick family supported Union College from the beginning, and their loyalty continued for three generations.
Dick attended Union College Academy for one year and then returned home to Kansas where he continued his education at Oswego Academy (Kansas Conference school). His senior year was interrupted by World War I. Dick volunteered for service in the Marine Corps. After basic training at Parris Island, South Carolina, his unit was assigned to Quantico, Virginia, and Indian Head, Maryland, where they tested various types of ordinance. Dick never saw combat duty, but he did earn a sharpshooter's medal for proficiency with a rifle.1 After his discharge from the Marine Corps, Dick returned to Oswego Academy where he completed high school in May 1919.
Upon completing high school, Dick enrolled at Union College, but financial difficulties dictated that he dropped out of school after one year. In the summer of 1920, Dick worked as a railway mail clerk. After riding trains through Texas and California, he stopped in Montana to teach school on the Burt Ranch, 90 miles east of Helena, Montana. In Montana he met old-timers, cowboys, and sheepherders who loved to share their stories. These stories inspired Dick's later work as a historian. In 1922, Dick was able to return to Union College and finally earned a bachelor's degree in history in 1924, despite another prolonged absence–again teaching in Montana, this time in Castle–in 1923.
Dick married fellow student and Kansan Opal Elree Wheeler (1901-1984) on August 15, 1923. Having been trained to as a teacher but denied a Kansas teacher's license because she would not take the exam on Sabbath, Opal enrolled in the commercial (business) major at Union College. Opal proved not only to be a devoted wife, mother, talented teacher, capable secretary, and writer in her own right, but also a valued research assistant for Dick's historical writing and unpaid secretary for the Medical Cadet Corps.2 The couple had three children. Donald David (1932-2012) became a professor of communication at Southern Adventist University. Lorle Ann (1934-living) married George Edward Stacey, Jr. and together the couple served the Adventist Church in South America for many years. Arthur Lynn became a physician.
Dick registered for graduate studies at the University of Nebraska in the summer of 1924, studying under John D. Hicks. He completed a Master of Arts degree in 1925 with the thesis, "The Long Drive," which was later published by the Kansas State Historical Society.3 Dick taught history and served as boys' dean at Oak Park Academy in Nevada, Iowa, from 1926 to 1928. He then began doctoral work at the University of Wisconsin under Frederic Logan Paxson in September of 1928. Dick chose the Millerite Movement for his dissertation subject and following Paxson's advice took the first of many research trips to visit sites associated with his research and to seek out original sources. Dick completed his dissertation, "The Adventist Crisis, 1831-1844"4 and was granted his doctorate in the spring of 1930. That fall he joined the faculty of Union College.
With the exception of leaves of absence from 1940-1942 and 1951-1958, Everett Dick worked for Union College for the rest of his life. He never officially retired. Instead, as his teaching duties diminished, Dick focused on his research and writing, and began fundraising for Union College. During his tenure at Union College, Dick's many positions included professor of history (1930-1989), faculty advisor for the student newspaper The Clocktower, summer school director (1932-1942), chairman of the history department, academic dean (1942-1944), and research professor of American history (1946-1989).
Despite a heavy teaching load and lack of research funds from Union College, Dick was a determined and prolific writer. Between 1931 and 1986 he wrote more than a dozen books and articles documenting the history of the Great Plains and then extending into the Rocky Mountains from exploration to the end of the frontier era. Two titles celebrated the history of Union College at its 50th and 75th anniversaries. Dick also continued to write about Adventist pioneers for church magazines. He was the recipient of a number of research grants that helped fund his work. These included grants from the Social Science Research Council (1938), the Rockefeller Foundation (1943-45), Woods Foundation research grant (1965), and the United States Office of Education (1970). He also received fellowships from the University of Wisconsin (1946-47) and the Newberry Library (1948-49). In 1969 he received the Huntington Library Research Award.5
For most people, Dick's teaching and writing agenda would have provided a full life. But in 1933, he was among a number of faculty members increasingly concerned about what would happen to the church's young men in the event of another world war. His concern led to action and in January 1934 Dick took the lead in Union College's Medical Corps, a program later adapted by the General Conference with the name Seventh-day Adventist Medical Cadet Corps (MCC). From 1940 to 1942, Dick directed the MCC first in the Midwest and then nationally. When the MCC was reactivated in 1950, Dick became the director of an internationally active MCC program, a position he held until 1958. During this time, Dick made three trips to the Far Eastern Division where he organized and inspected MCC units, and in 1953 visited Adventist American troops on the front lines in Korea. In addition, he traveled extensively across the United States in support of the MCC. However extensively he traveled, the MCC was managed from an office in his Lincoln, Nebraska, home.
Upon his return to Union College Dick continued to teach, but both his writing and his work with the Medical Cadet Corps ensured that he remained a public figure. He was in demand as a visiting professor spending terms at the University of Missouri, University of Wisconsin, and University of California at Berkeley. In 1967, Andrews University presented Dick with an honorary LL.D. in recognition of both his outstanding scholarship and significant leadership of the MCC.
As Dick reached retirement age, his teaching load decreased. But rather than formally retire, he began to work with Union College's development team in raising funds for a new capital campaign. Work in which Opal, as usual, joined him until her death on September 4, 1984. Dick married a widow, Blanche Gilbert Moore (mother of Marvin Moore, editor of the Signs of the Times), on August 10, 1986. Not quite three year later, Everett Dick died on January 16, 1989.
Although both of Dick's parents were born in Kentucky, his father was of Scotch-Irish descent and his mother's family hailed from New England. The Dick family made several moves west from Kentucky to the Missouri-Kansas frontier before Everett Dick's birth. In 1908, the family finally settled near La Harpe, Kansas, where they raised Hereford cattle. The Dicks joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Ozawkie, Kansas, in 1889, just before construction began on Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska.The Dick family supported Union College from the beginning, and their loyalty continued for three generations.
Dick attended Union College Academy for one year and then returned home to Kansas where he continued his education at Oswego Academy (Kansas Conference school). His senior year was interrupted by World War I. Dick volunteered for service in the Marine Corps. After basic training at Parris Island, South Carolina, his unit was assigned to Quantico, Virginia, and Indian Head, Maryland, where they tested various types of ordinance. Dick never saw combat duty, but he did earn a sharpshooter's medal for proficiency with a rifle.1 After his discharge from the Marine Corps, Dick returned to Oswego Academy where he completed high school in May 1919.
Upon completing high school, Dick enrolled at Union College, but financial difficulties dictated that he dropped out of school after one year. In the summer of 1920, Dick worked as a railway mail clerk. After riding trains through Texas and California, he stopped in Montana to teach school on the Burt Ranch, 90 miles east of Helena, Montana. In Montana he met old-timers, cowboys, and sheepherders who loved to share their stories. These stories inspired Dick's later work as a historian. In 1922, Dick was able to return to Union College and finally earned a bachelor's degree in history in 1924, despite another prolonged absence–again teaching in Montana, this time in Castle–in 1923.
Dick married fellow student and Kansan Opal Elree Wheeler (1901-1984) on August 15, 1923. Having been trained to as a teacher but denied a Kansas teacher's license because she would not take the exam on Sabbath, Opal enrolled in the commercial (business) major at Union College. Opal proved not only to be a devoted wife, mother, talented teacher, capable secretary, and writer in her own right, but also a valued research assistant for Dick's historical writing and unpaid secretary for the Medical Cadet Corps.2 The couple had three children. Donald David (1932-2012) became a professor of communication at Southern Adventist University. Lorle Ann (1934-living) married George Edward Stacey, Jr. and together the couple served the Adventist Church in South America for many years. Arthur Lynn became a physician.
Dick registered for graduate studies at the University of Nebraska in the summer of 1924, studying under John D. Hicks. He completed a Master of Arts degree in 1925 with the thesis, "The Long Drive," which was later published by the Kansas State Historical Society.3 Dick taught history and served as boys' dean at Oak Park Academy in Nevada, Iowa, from 1926 to 1928. He then began doctoral work at the University of Wisconsin under Frederic Logan Paxson in September of 1928. Dick chose the Millerite Movement for his dissertation subject and following Paxson's advice took the first of many research trips to visit sites associated with his research and to seek out original sources. Dick completed his dissertation, "The Adventist Crisis, 1831-1844"4 and was granted his doctorate in the spring of 1930. That fall he joined the faculty of Union College.
With the exception of leaves of absence from 1940-1942 and 1951-1958, Everett Dick worked for Union College for the rest of his life. He never officially retired. Instead, as his teaching duties diminished, Dick focused on his research and writing, and began fundraising for Union College. During his tenure at Union College, Dick's many positions included professor of history (1930-1989), faculty advisor for the student newspaper The Clocktower, summer school director (1932-1942), chairman of the history department, academic dean (1942-1944), and research professor of American history (1946-1989).
Despite a heavy teaching load and lack of research funds from Union College, Dick was a determined and prolific writer. Between 1931 and 1986 he wrote more than a dozen books and articles documenting the history of the Great Plains and then extending into the Rocky Mountains from exploration to the end of the frontier era. Two titles celebrated the history of Union College at its 50th and 75th anniversaries. Dick also continued to write about Adventist pioneers for church magazines. He was the recipient of a number of research grants that helped fund his work. These included grants from the Social Science Research Council (1938), the Rockefeller Foundation (1943-45), Woods Foundation research grant (1965), and the United States Office of Education (1970). He also received fellowships from the University of Wisconsin (1946-47) and the Newberry Library (1948-49). In 1969 he received the Huntington Library Research Award.5
For most people, Dick's teaching and writing agenda would have provided a full life. But in 1933, he was among a number of faculty members increasingly concerned about what would happen to the church's young men in the event of another world war. His concern led to action and in January 1934 Dick took the lead in Union College's Medical Corps, a program later adapted by the General Conference with the name Seventh-day Adventist Medical Cadet Corps (MCC). From 1940 to 1942, Dick directed the MCC first in the Midwest and then nationally. When the MCC was reactivated in 1950, Dick became the director of an internationally active MCC program, a position he held until 1958. During this time, Dick made three trips to the Far Eastern Division where he organized and inspected MCC units, and in 1953 visited Adventist American troops on the front lines in Korea. In addition, he traveled extensively across the United States in support of the MCC. However extensively he traveled, the MCC was managed from an office in his Lincoln, Nebraska, home.
Upon his return to Union College Dick continued to teach, but both his writing and his work with the Medical Cadet Corps ensured that he remained a public figure. He was in demand as a visiting professor spending terms at the University of Missouri, University of Wisconsin, and University of California at Berkeley. In 1967, Andrews University presented Dick with an honorary LL.D. in recognition of both his outstanding scholarship and significant leadership of the MCC.
As Dick reached retirement age, his teaching load decreased. But rather than formally retire, he began to work with Union College's development team in raising funds for a new capital campaign. Work in which Opal, as usual, joined him until her death on September 4, 1984. Dick married a widow, Blanche Gilbert Moore (mother of Marvin Moore, editor of the Signs of the Times), on August 10, 1986. Not quite three year later, Everett Dick died on January 16, 1989.
Everett Newfon Dick, an Adventist historian, educator, administrator, and fundraiser, was born on July 10, 1898, in Ozawkie, Kansas. He was the youngest of Grandville Gentry and Hannah Frances Smalley Dick's (1859-1956; 1860-1934) four sons. Dick's brother Ernest Delbert Dick served as Secretary of the General Conference from 1936 to 1952. His brother, Arthur C. Dick, was the father of Adventist pastor and educator Avery Varner Dick and grandfather of Ardis Dick Stenbakken, former Women's Ministry Director for the General Conference.
Although both of Dick's parents were born in Kentucky, his father was of Scotch-Irish descent and his mother's family hailed from New England. The Dick family made several moves west from Kentucky to the Missouri-Kansas frontier before Everett Dick's birth. In 1908, the family finally settled near La Harpe, Kansas, where they raised Hereford cattle. The Dicks joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Ozawkie, Kansas, in 1889, just before construction began on Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska.The Dick family supported Union College from the beginning, and their loyalty continued for three generations.
Dick attended Union College Academy for one year and then returned home to Kansas where he continued his education at Oswego Academy (Kansas Conference school). His senior year was interrupted by World War I. Dick volunteered for service in the Marine Corps. After basic training at Parris Island, South Carolina, his unit was assigned to Quantico, Virginia, and Indian Head, Maryland, where they tested various types of ordinance. Dick never saw combat duty, but he did earn a sharpshooter's medal for proficiency with a rifle.1 After his discharge from the Marine Corps, Dick returned to Oswego Academy where he completed high school in May 1919.
Upon completing high school, Dick enrolled at Union College, but financial difficulties dictated that he dropped out of school after one year. In the summer of 1920, Dick worked as a railway mail clerk. After riding trains through Texas and California, he stopped in Montana to teach school on the Burt Ranch, 90 miles east of Helena, Montana. In Montana he met old-timers, cowboys, and sheepherders who loved to share their stories. These stories inspired Dick's later work as a historian. In 1922, Dick was able to return to Union College and finally earned a bachelor's degree in history in 1924, despite another prolonged absence–again teaching in Montana, this time in Castle–in 1923.
Dick married fellow student and Kansan Opal Elree Wheeler (1901-1984) on August 15, 1923. Having been trained to as a teacher but denied a Kansas teacher's license because she would not take the exam on Sabbath, Opal enrolled in the commercial (business) major at Union College. Opal proved not only to be a devoted wife, mother, talented teacher, capable secretary, and writer in her own right, but also a valued research assistant for Dick's historical writing and unpaid secretary for the Medical Cadet Corps.2 The couple had three children. Donald David (1932-2012) became a professor of communication at Southern Adventist University. Lorle Ann (1934-living) married George Edward Stacey, Jr. and together the couple served the Adventist Church in South America for many years. Arthur Lynn became a physician.
Dick registered for graduate studies at the University of Nebraska in the summer of 1924, studying under John D. Hicks. He completed a Master of Arts degree in 1925 with the thesis, "The Long Drive," which was later published by the Kansas State Historical Society.3 Dick taught history and served as boys' dean at Oak Park Academy in Nevada, Iowa, from 1926 to 1928. He then began doctoral work at the University of Wisconsin under Frederic Logan Paxson in September of 1928. Dick chose the Millerite Movement for his dissertation subject and following Paxson's advice took the first of many research trips to visit sites associated with his research and to seek out original sources. Dick completed his dissertation, "The Adventist Crisis, 1831-1844"4 and was granted his doctorate in the spring of 1930. That fall he joined the faculty of Union College.
With the exception of leaves of absence from 1940-1942 and 1951-1958, Everett Dick worked for Union College for the rest of his life. He never officially retired. Instead, as his teaching duties diminished, Dick focused on his research and writing, and began fundraising for Union College. During his tenure at Union College, Dick's many positions included professor of history (1930-1989), faculty advisor for the student newspaper The Clocktower, summer school director (1932-1942), chairman of the history department, academic dean (1942-1944), and research professor of American history (1946-1989).
Despite a heavy teaching load and lack of research funds from Union College, Dick was a determined and prolific writer. Between 1931 and 1986 he wrote more than a dozen books and articles documenting the history of the Great Plains and then extending into the Rocky Mountains from exploration to the end of the frontier era. Two titles celebrated the history of Union College at its 50th and 75th anniversaries. Dick also continued to write about Adventist pioneers for church magazines. He was the recipient of a number of research grants that helped fund his work. These included grants from the Social Science Research Council (1938), the Rockefeller Foundation (1943-45), Woods Foundation research grant (1965), and the United States Office of Education (1970). He also received fellowships from the University of Wisconsin (1946-47) and the Newberry Library (1948-49). In 1969 he received the Huntington Library Research Award.5
For most people, Dick's teaching and writing agenda would have provided a full life. But in 1933, he was among a number of faculty members increasingly concerned about what would happen to the church's young men in the event of another world war. His concern led to action and in January 1934 Dick took the lead in Union College's Medical Corps, a program later adapted by the General Conference with the name Seventh-day Adventist Medical Cadet Corps (MCC). From 1940 to 1942, Dick directed the MCC first in the Midwest and then nationally. When the MCC was reactivated in 1950, Dick became the director of an internationally active MCC program, a position he held until 1958. During this time, Dick made three trips to the Far Eastern Division where he organized and inspected MCC units, and in 1953 visited Adventist American troops on the front lines in Korea. In addition, he traveled extensively across the United States in support of the MCC. However extensively he traveled, the MCC was managed from an office in his Lincoln, Nebraska, home.
Upon his return to Union College Dick continued to teach, but both his writing and his work with the Medical Cadet Corps ensured that he remained a public figure. He was in demand as a visiting professor spending terms at the University of Missouri, University of Wisconsin, and University of California at Berkeley. In 1967, Andrews University presented Dick with an honorary LL.D. in recognition of both his outstanding scholarship and significant leadership of the MCC.
As Dick reached retirement age, his teaching load decreased. But rather than formally retire, he began to work with Union College's development team in raising funds for a new capital campaign. Work in which Opal, as usual, joined him until her death on September 4, 1984. Dick married a widow, Blanche Gilbert Moore (mother of Marvin Moore, editor of the Signs of the Times), on August 10, 1986. Not quite three year later, Everett Dick died on January 16, 1989.
Although both of Dick's parents were born in Kentucky, his father was of Scotch-Irish descent and his mother's family hailed from New England. The Dick family made several moves west from Kentucky to the Missouri-Kansas frontier before Everett Dick's birth. In 1908, the family finally settled near La Harpe, Kansas, where they raised Hereford cattle. The Dicks joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Ozawkie, Kansas, in 1889, just before construction began on Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska.The Dick family supported Union College from the beginning, and their loyalty continued for three generations.
Dick attended Union College Academy for one year and then returned home to Kansas where he continued his education at Oswego Academy (Kansas Conference school). His senior year was interrupted by World War I. Dick volunteered for service in the Marine Corps. After basic training at Parris Island, South Carolina, his unit was assigned to Quantico, Virginia, and Indian Head, Maryland, where they tested various types of ordinance. Dick never saw combat duty, but he did earn a sharpshooter's medal for proficiency with a rifle.1 After his discharge from the Marine Corps, Dick returned to Oswego Academy where he completed high school in May 1919.
Upon completing high school, Dick enrolled at Union College, but financial difficulties dictated that he dropped out of school after one year. In the summer of 1920, Dick worked as a railway mail clerk. After riding trains through Texas and California, he stopped in Montana to teach school on the Burt Ranch, 90 miles east of Helena, Montana. In Montana he met old-timers, cowboys, and sheepherders who loved to share their stories. These stories inspired Dick's later work as a historian. In 1922, Dick was able to return to Union College and finally earned a bachelor's degree in history in 1924, despite another prolonged absence–again teaching in Montana, this time in Castle–in 1923.
Dick married fellow student and Kansan Opal Elree Wheeler (1901-1984) on August 15, 1923. Having been trained to as a teacher but denied a Kansas teacher's license because she would not take the exam on Sabbath, Opal enrolled in the commercial (business) major at Union College. Opal proved not only to be a devoted wife, mother, talented teacher, capable secretary, and writer in her own right, but also a valued research assistant for Dick's historical writing and unpaid secretary for the Medical Cadet Corps.2 The couple had three children. Donald David (1932-2012) became a professor of communication at Southern Adventist University. Lorle Ann (1934-living) married George Edward Stacey, Jr. and together the couple served the Adventist Church in South America for many years. Arthur Lynn became a physician.
Dick registered for graduate studies at the University of Nebraska in the summer of 1924, studying under John D. Hicks. He completed a Master of Arts degree in 1925 with the thesis, "The Long Drive," which was later published by the Kansas State Historical Society.3 Dick taught history and served as boys' dean at Oak Park Academy in Nevada, Iowa, from 1926 to 1928. He then began doctoral work at the University of Wisconsin under Frederic Logan Paxson in September of 1928. Dick chose the Millerite Movement for his dissertation subject and following Paxson's advice took the first of many research trips to visit sites associated with his research and to seek out original sources. Dick completed his dissertation, "The Adventist Crisis, 1831-1844"4 and was granted his doctorate in the spring of 1930. That fall he joined the faculty of Union College.
With the exception of leaves of absence from 1940-1942 and 1951-1958, Everett Dick worked for Union College for the rest of his life. He never officially retired. Instead, as his teaching duties diminished, Dick focused on his research and writing, and began fundraising for Union College. During his tenure at Union College, Dick's many positions included professor of history (1930-1989), faculty advisor for the student newspaper The Clocktower, summer school director (1932-1942), chairman of the history department, academic dean (1942-1944), and research professor of American history (1946-1989).
Despite a heavy teaching load and lack of research funds from Union College, Dick was a determined and prolific writer. Between 1931 and 1986 he wrote more than a dozen books and articles documenting the history of the Great Plains and then extending into the Rocky Mountains from exploration to the end of the frontier era. Two titles celebrated the history of Union College at its 50th and 75th anniversaries. Dick also continued to write about Adventist pioneers for church magazines. He was the recipient of a number of research grants that helped fund his work. These included grants from the Social Science Research Council (1938), the Rockefeller Foundation (1943-45), Woods Foundation research grant (1965), and the United States Office of Education (1970). He also received fellowships from the University of Wisconsin (1946-47) and the Newberry Library (1948-49). In 1969 he received the Huntington Library Research Award.5
For most people, Dick's teaching and writing agenda would have provided a full life. But in 1933, he was among a number of faculty members increasingly concerned about what would happen to the church's young men in the event of another world war. His concern led to action and in January 1934 Dick took the lead in Union College's Medical Corps, a program later adapted by the General Conference with the name Seventh-day Adventist Medical Cadet Corps (MCC). From 1940 to 1942, Dick directed the MCC first in the Midwest and then nationally. When the MCC was reactivated in 1950, Dick became the director of an internationally active MCC program, a position he held until 1958. During this time, Dick made three trips to the Far Eastern Division where he organized and inspected MCC units, and in 1953 visited Adventist American troops on the front lines in Korea. In addition, he traveled extensively across the United States in support of the MCC. However extensively he traveled, the MCC was managed from an office in his Lincoln, Nebraska, home.
Upon his return to Union College Dick continued to teach, but both his writing and his work with the Medical Cadet Corps ensured that he remained a public figure. He was in demand as a visiting professor spending terms at the University of Missouri, University of Wisconsin, and University of California at Berkeley. In 1967, Andrews University presented Dick with an honorary LL.D. in recognition of both his outstanding scholarship and significant leadership of the MCC.
As Dick reached retirement age, his teaching load decreased. But rather than formally retire, he began to work with Union College's development team in raising funds for a new capital campaign. Work in which Opal, as usual, joined him until her death on September 4, 1984. Dick married a widow, Blanche Gilbert Moore (mother of Marvin Moore, editor of the Signs of the Times), on August 10, 1986. Not quite three year later, Everett Dick died on January 16, 1989.
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