Community College
Teacher-Scholar Award
by
Harry Ungar
At the Section's November dinner meeting, the 2010
Community College Teacher-Scholar Award was presented to Thomas R.
Dickson, an emeritus faculty member at Cabrillo College in Aptos,
California. In a moving ceremony, Dr. Joseph Francisco, President of
the American Chemical Society, presented Dickson with the second annual
award honoring teaching and scholarship among the chemistry faculty of
two-year colleges.
In 2009, the SCV-ACS section became the first local
section in the nation to establish such an award. The first award
presentation, to Professor Jeaneette Medina of Cañada College,
was made by Dr. Tom Lane, the 2009 ACS President. Since then our
neighbor, the California Section, has inaugurated its own
Teacher-Scholar award, and made its first presentation in Fall, 2010.
Over the course of his career Dickson published six
books. The first, in 1968, was The Computer and Chemistry: An
Introduction to Programming and Numerical Methods. Later, in 1978, came
The Handcalculator Handbook. His most successful publication was his
textbook, Introduction to Chemistry, which ran through eight editions
and remained in print for over 30 years. It is regarded as a model of
clarity in presentation and for developing problem solving skills and
has been translated into Spanish. One of his colleagues once spotted a
copy in the front window of a large bookstore in downtown Melbourne,
Australia.
Albion Baucom, one of his former students, wrote
about him, "His teaching style was captivating." Baucom, now a computer
systems architect at Genentech, continued, "Although I had endured high
school chemistry just a year prior, his ability to keep me focused on
the material while explaining it in terms that made it very
understandable was uncanny."
Christy Vogel, who currently teaches at Cabrillo,
said of him, "His ability to capture and hold the attention of a
diverse group of students is uniquely 'T.R..' Interweaving his
extensive knowledge of novel chemical applications and historical
background with a clear presentation of chemical principles, he
maintained the largest non-science major audience in the history of
Cabrillo College."
Accolades such as these define the teaching career
of Thomas R. Dickson,--"T.R." to his friends and students--who taught
at Cabrillo from 1971 to 1997.
ACS Board Chair Bonnie
Charpentier, 2010 President Joseph Francisco,
2010 Award Winner T.R. Dickson, and 2009 Award Winner Jeanette Medina