Longtime instructor and distinguished
mathematician Robert P. Dickinson, Jr., died Sept. 18 in Livermore
of a brain tumor at age 61.
A mathematician at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory for 17
years, Dickinson began his teaching career part-time at Chabot
College in the early 1970s. In 1977 he began teaching full-time
in Livermore at the new Valley campus, which later became Las
Positas College. There he was instrumental in establishing the
computer science program.
“Teaching was one of his real loves,” said Alan
Hindmarsh, a mathematician at the Lab, in the Tri-Valley Times.
“He was good at it and he had a real rapport with the students.
He was very patient.”
Art Tenbrink, an LPC psychology instructor and counselor,
also witnessed Dickinson’s gift for teaching. “I’d
pass by [his] office cubicle and see an anxious math student
sitting there, with [Dickinson] radiating infinite patience.
[He] seemed able, not only to melt through the anxiety, but to
turn that light bulb of learning back on in most every math-dimmed
mind.”
A memorial service was held on Friday, Sept. 24 at the Universal
Unitarian Church in Livermore. Memorial gifts may be sent to
the Robert Dickinson Scholarship Fund at Las Positas College.