Jim Tomlin writes:

   I wanted to speak [at the reunion] about Dave Dickson, but it seems I'm still uncomfortable speaking in front of my classmates, like some oral report I flunked in the 6th grade even though I have been a graduation speaker several times and this year was the speaker for the Newport All City sports breakfast...... go figure.

   Anyway.

   Dave was in so many ways the best of us. Although we never "hung out" much, we were friends since 5th grade summer camp. I never spent time with him that I didn't feel included, and I never saw or heard him denigrate anyone, ever. As 8th graders we both discovered if you joined the "sports club" you in effect got two PE classes. Can't think of a downside to that. Since we both had last period PE, and the sports club was the last period of the day, between that last period and when sports club started there was a 20 minute shower/change time when we played 1 on 1 basketball. Since Dave was 5'9" and I was 5'3" and about half the athlete he was, he fashioned some unspoken, informal rules that allowed the contests to be competitive.

   Dave would never break these rules even to win. One day the game was close and went into "overtime." Sports club guys were dressed and coming into the gym to watch. Incredibly I sunk a shot that won the game, and quickly several students began to give Dave a hard time.

 How could you lose to that guy?

 Possible answers.

"I didn't play my hardest." True

"It's just for fun, I never shoot lay-ups."  True

"He just hit one lucky shot."  Mostly true

 Dave's answer.

 He played really well today."

   I think that speaks volumes about the Dave Dickson I knew. Dave was our ASB President and all everything athlete. We were discussing the insecurities of youth we all felt over the phone about six years ago. Young adults are fragile; I have worked with them for 41 years. I said that he had always projected certainty and confidence, and he replied that it was a certainty and confidence he hadn't felt. He told me how he felt those same insecurities. I said if HE didn't feel certainty and confidence, then who among us did?

   He said that's the point. And yet he never tried to raise himself by pulling someone else down, a life well lived.