Don Dickson
Don Dickson passed away on January 16, 2021, at the Ethan Allen Residence in Burlington, Vt. He was born on March 31, 1942, in Lawton, Okla., where his parents, Donald Dickson Sr. and Merlyn Dickson, were living at Fort Sill. He is survived by his wife of 48 years, Judy Dickson; his children Amy, David and Jeff Dickson; his grandson Jonah Dickson; and his siblings Peggy Higgenbotham (Nate), Georganne Lohman (Dave) and Tom Dickson.
Don grew up in East Lansing, Mich., where he graduated from high school. After obtaining a bachelor’s degree from Michigan State (1964), he obtained a master’s degree in Southeast Asian studies from Yale University (1966) and a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in political science (1975). Prior to attending MIT, Don served in the U.S. Navy in Southeast Asia (1967 to 1969).
Choral singers are by definition members of a team, he wrote in an email. Making, hearing and succumbing to the interplay of human voices is the essence of choral singing. Without that, it s hard to be inspired to breath[e], listen, think and perform in unison with other singers. That interplay of voices presents new challenges when the singers are so far apart. Buettner has had to rethink his repertoire. Musically, our projects have to be much shorter, he notes. And because sight lines are problematic in a 700-seat chapel, the music that has worked is rhythmic. That includes Non Nobis, Domine by Rosephanye Powell, a 2002 piece that s standard with academic choirs; and the folk-sounding Meet Me Here by Craig Hella Johnson, from 2016. The latter, says Buettner, is a little slower but had a continual pulse that we could all feel across a distance.