Deceased July 26, 2010
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In Memory
Approximately six weeks ago, Daniel E. Dick notified the Secretariat he had been diagnosed with a serious health problem involving white blood cells, causing his future to be less than bright. This forcefully grabbed our attention, but we never expected a month later to learn our lifelong friend and post-WWII roommate would depart so quickly. With sadness and respect, memories of Danny languish today in the hearts and minds of a multitude of classmates!!
Danny was born, raised and lived most of his life in Worcester, Mass. He entered Amherst during the summer semester of 1942 when WWII was raging and the futures for all ’46ers were uncertain. I first met him during a huge freshman indoctrination party on Hitchcock Field during the Summer of 1942, after which our friendship never flagged. He pledged Chi Phi and, after three semesters, departed for the navy V-12 program at Williams and returned to Amherst in 1946 after his naval career was terminated by “peace in our turbulent times.”
After Amherst, Danny attended Yale University where he earned a master’s degree in forestry. He devoted several years to a family business which specialized in manufacturing furniture designed for churches and chapels. However, Danny’s major lifetime vocation was representing the citizens of east-central Massachusetts in saving and restoring their watershed to the sea including its brooks and historic mill ponds, which remain today as places of great natural beauty. He also served on the faculty of Worcester’s “Institute for Senior Education” where the students were older, wiser and eagerly tackled the courses offered.
Danny Dick was a wonderful, loyal man and friend, passionately devoted to many causes which usually featured a slant toward the liberal side of the political spectrum. Supremely over all, however, was the passion for his lovely and musically talented wife, Marjory, and their array of siblings (nine) whose families provided their mother and dad with many decades of pleasure and pride.
Woody Steinwart ’46