Donor Generosity

Donor Generosity

Sarah Lucile Lawton Dickinson ’42

“A Remarkable Woman” Leaves a Transformative Gift to MHU

by Teresa Buckner, Director of Publications

When Sarah “Lucile” Lawton Dickinson ’42 passed away in May 2019, she left a substantial sum from her estate to her alma mater, Mars Hill University. Her gift has been used well: it has funded student scholarships and ongoing capital projects, and it has offset debt on the Ammons Athletic Field House. Perhaps most significantly, the funds from the Dickenson Estate have provided a solid foundation for the Together We Rise campaign. President Emeritus Dan Lunsford and former First Lady Beverly Lunsford were close to Mrs. Dickenson in the final years of her life and said she would be pleased with the ways her gift has been used on campus. “We believe she would appreciate the impact her gift will make, now and far into the future,” Dan Lunsford said. So, who was this woman who is making an impact today on the MHU campus? She was a proud alumna of Mars Hill College, who arrived on campus in 1940 with $12 and a suitcase. She talked often, the Lunsfords said, of her admiration for Dr. Robert Moore (president, 18971938), and her affection for Spilman Hall, where she lived and worked in the basement dining hall to earn her way through college. Above: Dr. Dan Lunsford visits with Lucile Dickenson around 2012. Right: Lucile Lawton, as she appeared in the 1941 Laurel. She was a veteran, who, after completing her bachelor’s degree at Florida College for Women (now Florida State University) joined the Women’s Air Corps (the 1940s-era “women’s auxiliary” of the Marine Corps). Throughout the war, she worked in a factory in San Diego, Calif., to refit airplanes for service overseas. She was an educator. After World War II, Miss Lawton went to Duke University to obtain her master’s degree and then she joined the English faculty of N.C. State University. There, she met and married another member of the English faculty, Blair Dickinson. When N.C. State would not allow the Dickinsons to teach in the same department, they resigned and set off to teach English overseas. For around 20 years, they taught in American schools in Germany, Japan, Italy, and other countries throughout Europe. When the Dickinsons returned to the states, they set up residence in Boynton Beach, Fla., where Lucile taught English at Palm Beach Junior College until her retirement. Many years after Blair Dickinson passed away, she continued educating, teaching technology classes to “the old people,” on ocean cruises in her 80s. She was an independent woman, who talked of joyfully swimming in the ocean three times a week, well into her 80s. She also made headstrong (and usually beneficial) investment decisions with her money, sometimes in complete defiance of the money managers she had hired. Thanks to her transformative gift to MHU, Mrs. Dickinson’s spirit and her affection for Mars Hill can now live on. “She was a remarkable person,” Beverly Lunsford said. “It was a privilege to know her and keep the connection alive for her with Mars Hill.”