Al Dixon Memorial Scholarship Fund

The Al Dixon Memorial Scholarship Fund was established by The National city Rotary Club which has it's own Foundation. This Foundation takes care of all the funds raised by the club and writes the checks for all our service projects. The Foundation has a Permanent Fund and the Al Dixon Fund was set up as a permanent fund also. Only the interest earned on the permanent fund is used for service projects or in the case of Al's fund for scholarships.

The first year, with an average of slightly less than $5,000 in the Al Dixon Fund, there was only a small amount of interest available. National City annually gives a $750.00 award to a ROTC student from Sweetwater High School. The next year, no money was used from the Al Dixon Fund. The interest was reinvested and the award given by The National City Rotary Club was given in Al's name. The young lady who received the award went into the Navy.

The National City Rotary Foundation voted at their next meet to combine the two permanent funds into one and it became the Al Dixon Memorial Fund. This will mean that there will be a reasonable amount for a scholarship every year. Their permanent funds grow every year because part of all their service funds go into that fund and some of their members make yearly donations to the fund.

As for the criteria, we have asked the school to pick a student who will not be going to college but will be continuing their education in business or the military. The student need not be a top scholar but rather one who works hard in school and also has time to help others. The young lady who was chosen the third year acts as an interpreter at the Thousand Smiles clinic (which Grannie was very involved with).

Al was dearly loved by all in our National City Club, as he was by ICUFR members. He had also served in the Navy so we were all pleased with the selection.

Grace "Grannie" Guderjahn

For those who wish to commemorate Allen's Life, donations will be accepted for the "Allen Dixon Memorial Fund" to be managed by the National City California Rotary Club Foundation. Al was the driving force behind the forming of National City's Foundation. He served as the first chairman and continued to serve on the financial committee. 

The Fund will be a perpetual Fund. The interest earned will be used for a scholarship although as yet the particulars have not been worked out. How much will depend, of course, on the size of the fund. Our Foundation will encourage people to donate to the fund each year before the scholarship is awarded. This will help to keep Al's memory alive as well as to increase the fund.

In memory of all the wonderful things, gifts, time, Paul Harris Fellowships and Love that Al gave so freely to ICUFR, the Board voted to donate $1,000 to this fund to help keep Al's memory alive and to continue what he loved so much. Other donations from ICUFR and ROTI members have come in as well and will be presented to the National City Club on Tue. March 4. 

Today Carl Cardey , Art McCullough and I attended the memorial service for our beloved Al. People from all walks of life were there to celebrate the life of our chairman. Many PDG from our District 5340 were there with theirs wifes. Member from our Club, The Rotary Club of National City were there as were members from many of the clubs in our District. Men and women who had worked for Al, men and women who had gone to high school with him, all were their to remember him and to celebrate his life.

Reynolds Heriot spoke for all of us as he highlighted parts of Al life. Though most of you could not be with us, I felt close to you as Reynolds spoke of Al's deep involment in the I.C.U.F.R. and his love for all of it's members. He will live on in our heart, our own Opinionated Al.

If anyone wishes to contribute to this Foundation in Al's memory, I will be glad to collect the donations. I am currently on the Foundation Board and can assure you all donations will be used as Al would have wanted. 

Grace Guderjahn
500 Golf Glen Dr.
San Marcos, CA 92069-1754
USA

This is a message copied from Dr. J P-P to Mel on the taranto Rotachat list on Mar. 27, 2001 Mel.

>> the package of goodies that he dispensed at every conference <<

This was always amazing. I think Al taught me the means whereby one could be generous without patronising; both spiritually and materially.

He was a very private man and late into the night when all the others were abed we would chat till 2 or 3am about all sorts of things.

He would use all means of mischief to find out what, if anything made me tick, as he said I baffled him slightly because he found me hard to work out. I used to banter that if a man held a mirror up against me all he would see was himself! But he never gave up trying to find out the nature of others.

He had flaws - which made him the man he was.

He was a very normal sort of man. Some have asked me if he was anything else and I can confidently reply that he was not. But like the man of intelligence that he was, he could cope with all manner of person without showing any side. Opinionated though he was, I got the feeling that he never sat in judgement - not in the moral sense at any rate.

I challenged him that 'being opinionated', as he always insisted he was, was something of a smoke-screen to get others going - and he would chuckle!

The ICUFR was the perfect environ for him but technology changes and pays no attention to humanity or what it might feel when it cannot move at the same speed. DOS architecture suited him perfectly and he mastered it with help from others so that he could produce lists and the nature of the ICUFR environment in the old Compuserve days which can never really be equalled again.

I think the San Diego meeting was the apogee of it all for him. It was a wonderful conference which will stand in my memory as a high point. We filmed his crowning and I have the recording of the business session in mp3 format. I left a couple of copies over the pond when I was there in Toronto a year later.

And we have thousands of photographs! We won't forget him. Every so often we should remember him and dust him down and remember him again. He always bound each and every one of us to secrecy about his largesse - so we never knew who we were and who else he had helped. He would have got very shy about that.

And - as is the way with generosity - it was given quite unconditionally - and I warned him about that too. But he would shrug and smile a slow Jack Nicholson smile. His voice by the way was smooth and charming and like Jack Nicholson's. All of us lucky enough to have met him will remember the uncanny likeness between him and Tom Selleck .... ;)

Dr. James Pitt-Payne

AL DIXON" A GREAT ROTARIAN AND FRIEND

Dear Internet Friends this information was taken for the 1998-99 Rotary District 5340 Directory and modified to reflect his passing . I felt that it covered much of the information about Al that many of you who knew him personally or just on the Internet would appreciate reading. Art McCullough, ROTI and ICUFR member.

Al was to be our District Governor this year until business reverses beyond his control changed his future and the future of our District .

Allen L. Dixon (Al) Senior Active; Automotive Accessories Mfg. National City Rotary Club Paul Harris Fellow and Foundation Benefactor

Al Dixon was a high school student in 1955 when he attended his first Rotary Club meeting in Coronado. Twenty-six years later in 1981, he joined the Rotary Club of National City. He was classified as Senior Active, Automotive Accessories Manufacturing and from his factory in National City, ships to companies such as Wal-Mart, Kmart and Pep Boys. Al and his son, Steve, own H&L Products, Inc. selling items under license as Samsonite brand. These include cellular phone accessories and various sewn convenience accessories for automobiles and trucks.

While Al has designed and invented several products, he says his greatest sales have been gained through adaptation of existing items. Changing something to make it bigger or smaller, better or less expensive, using different colors, patterns or materials and filling wants over needs seems simple, but these small things have been keys to success. "To invent is fine, but to innovate is better." Al stated that he gained customer knowledge through his time at White Front Department Stores ( The first major warehouse type store in the US ) where he became an area manager in the late 1960's. Al served in the United States Navy from 1957 to 1963 and was a member of the American Legion. He attended San Diego State University and the University of Utah. Al was a resident of Coronado California and then Bonita California since 1944.

During the many years of service to the National City Rotary club Al served as Bulletin Editor, Director of Community Service, Director of Club Service, Secretary, and Foundation President in his club. He was President of the Club 1989-1990. His positions in District 5340 included Publicity and Public Relations, Area Representative, District Newsletter Editor, Executive Assistant to the Governor, and District Secretary and Communications Officer. He was selected as his club's Rotarian of the Year in 1993 and District Rotarian of the Year in 1995.

Al at his passing the Chairman of the International Computer Users Fellowship of Rotarians and one of the Rotarians on the Internet fellowship. For many years long before the Internet he communicated daily with Rotarians and friends throughout the world.

Al's hobbies included computer communications, the Internet, an extensive video and tape collection ( in the hundreds ) , coin collecting, travel, and boating.

"In Rotary," Al always said , "There is no need to reinvent anything, but constructive and creative innovation is always the key to progress."

Arthur R. McCullough

Dear All

I am very upset to receive this news as is Jacqui, she whom Al named 'Saint Jacqui'. Doug Grierson is away in France this weekend so we will be ringing Doreen to let her know. There will be many tributes to Al Dixon; for all that he did and all that he gave to Rotary and to us.

But I will remember the man for the good deeds that he did by stealth - and many of us will know just what I mean by that. Born under the sign of Leo, he was a true lion and a leader of the pack and when he became so wounded that he could no longer lead, he did what lions do and left us for that solitude that waits for death to take him.

In the years to come he will not be forgotten and as long as there are those of us still drawing breath we will speak of him as a giant of his day, a pioneer in the computer communications scene. The assimilation of DOS by Windows 95 and later 98 was a glitch that sorely tried him much as radio engineers suffered with the change from valves to transistors, but he soldiered on bravely in the face of a rapidly changing scene.

Each of us who knew Al will always think of him as 'our' friend but he was a very private man whose outer persona, always ebullient and friendly, hid much previous suffering and pain.Happily we have many records and photographs of him, and, in due course, maybe, we will collect this together and make some kind of record of his ICUFR days.

For now, though, I am grieving over my loss, our loss, of a much-loved man. Truly it can be said that he was a friend in a million and a friend to a million.

James and Jacqui Pitt-Payne

To the members of ICUFR,

On behalf of "Rotarians on the Internet" (ROTI) I would like to express our deepest condolences and sympathies for the recent passing of your Chairman, Al Dixon.

Al was a Charter member of ROTI and a good friend to many of our members. I did not know Al Dixon personally and only exchanged a few e-mails with him occasionally, but I have come to learn that he was a man worth knowing.

Al once told me that he had posted 15,000 e-mail letters thus far (or maybe that was just for one month <G>) and reading back on some of them I see that there was indeed a great deal of wisdom and common sense in his writings. For those of you who archive your messages, you will have a lasting legacy of Al Dixon resting in your computer.

We stand with you in this time of grief and we share the sorrow.

Sincerely,

Philip Merritt ROTI

It's hard to believe that Al is no longer with us. He truely put Service Above Self both with the Fellowship and that larger world beyond the family we call Rotary. 

I am reminded of something Paul Harris said many years ago. "In the promotion of international understanding and goodwill, one must remember it's important to reach as large numbers as possible - non-Rotarians as well as Rotarians - and one cannot reach large numbers privately.

" Al was one of those individuals who reached out publically whether in his community, through the internet, at convention and conferences and leaves a big gap in the Rotary family. I remember him convincing me by email that I should drive to Calgary for the Rotary Convention (as I was only one province away) and volunteer my time at the ICFUR booth. 

I did and since that time have taken on other computer based communications duties at the Club and District level. Probably would never have thought I had the ability to pick up the design skills so quickly if I hadn't gone to Calgary and met with the "family" of our fellowship.

Gordon Swan

We are all very sad to learn of Al's sudden death. Please pass on my best wishes to Reynolds. Al will be missed and Reynolds must be very sad and troubled. Al's vision has improved this fellowship and helped broaden its scope, ensuring that it outlived CompuServe.

Others have told of the dinners and theatre outings that he hosted at the fellowship conferences. I would probably not otherwise have gone to see Showboat in Chicago or Cats in San Diego, let alone found such wonderful venues for dining. I would gladly have paid for the privilege and I was astonished to learn that it was his gift to us for showing up.

Al's energy and organization got me, Marlene Mackesy and others who might not have done so to attend the 1998 International Convention at Indianapolis and to help with the ICUFR booth.

That was my first convention and I strengthened many friendships, learned a lot about Rotary International and the work of clubs elsewhere in the world, met many interesting people from around the world, and became firmly committed to supporting the Rotary Foundation. It was unfortunate that Al and Reynolds had to leave before the convention ended to deal with a business emergency in San Diego. That was the last time I saw Al alive and in person.

Aside from all of that tangible stuff, Al did much to strengthen my commitment to Rotary and to make me think about Rotary, especially how one associates participation in a club with one's business or profession. I know of much more that he did to promote and strengthen this fellowship and to put it on a solid footing both financially and legally. I will think of Al as I continue to develop my Rotary Wall of Honor in my home office.

David Gray

We will miss you, Al.

And when you meet Paul Harris in the great beyond, tell him that Rotary is alive and well...and it's all because of Rotarians like you.

Jojo Chupeco, President-Elect RY 1999-2000

RC Mega EDSA, Quezon City

RI District 3780 Philippines

Dear Friends on Internet,

On behalf of Japanese Rotarians Internet Conference,JRIC, I would express sorrow for our good friend Al Dixon's passing away. And sincere condolences to all who would certainly have.

May he be in peace in heaven.

Norio Sanjoh M.D. JRIC Co-Chairman Shinjo Rotary Club Dist. 2800 Yamagata, Japan

I have been recalling some of the ways he has affected us all. One of them was his habit of sending gift boxes with all sorts of doodads in them.. the gifts he always brought to the R-CHICs .. later called the ICUFR Conventions. He was a big man with a big heart. Most of that heart was dedicated to the ICUFR and it's members. Let us not forget!

~Mel~ Fabrikant

Huanuco-Peru-SudAmerica. 28 marzo 2000

Estimado Señor Carl Cardey.

Revizando algunas paginas web encontre su e-mail, i don't speak inglish very well, but i understand so-so.

Aquí también hay un Rotary Club, como un Rotaract club al cual presido.

Este mensaje lleva mucho cariño, saludos amistad, fortaleza, alegría y todos los para bienes para usted, su familia y su club.

Es un gusto para mí poder comunicarme con Usted.

Espero que pueda entenderme.

Con cariño ROSA CHAGUA TIMOTEO PRESIDENTA DEL ROTARACT CLUB HUANUCO

I'm so saddened to hear of the passing of our dear friend Al.

Although I never met him in person, his timely comments in the ICUFR Forum we shared on Compuserve were often a delight and sometimes challenging but always showed respect for the opinions of others. Mostly, I shall remember, his joy for life, his friendly good humour and his abiding enthusiasm for all things Rotary.

I was privileged to exchange many private e-mails with him over the last few years. Always, his thoughts reached out and touched a chord in his friends and colleagues.

My sincere condolences to his family.

Rest in Peace, Al.

Frank Booker

R.C. Northfleet,

D1120, Kent UK.