Fifth UK president leaves behind legacy of education

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By Matthew Stallings
​news@kykernel.com
​
​Former UK president Frank Graves Dickey, 91, died Aug. 7 due to complications from pancreatic cancer at St. Joseph Hospital.

Dickey became the fifth president in UK’s history and the youngest after succeeding Herman Lee Donovan as president in 1956.

Until 1963, Dickey oversaw a number of projects that initiated extraordinary growth within the university. The launch of UK’s medical school and the opening of the Albert B. Chandler Medical Center that houses the colleges of dentistry, medicine and nursing were seen to completion within his tenure. Several dorms were built and off-campus extension centers were opened, laying the foundation for UK’s community college system. The Chemistry-Physics Building and the UK Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce also opened its doors during his time.

“Even though the University lost a historic figure today, UK and the entire Commonwealth of Kentucky will never forget the legacy he left,” said President Todd in a news release.

Dickey Hall was opened in 1964 in his honor by the UK College of Education.

Dickey left the presidency to become the executive director of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

From 1965 to 1974, Dickey headed the National Commission on Accrediting of Colleges and Universities, was provost of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte from 1974 to 1976, and became vice president of University Associates, an educational consulting firm in Washington, D.C., in 1976.

Dickey was born Dec. 1, 1917 in Wagoner, Okla. He graduated summa cum laude from Transylvania College, majoring in English with a music minor in 1939. Upon graduating he served as a public school teacher while earning a masters degree in arts and sciences from UK in 1942. Dickey served in the U.S. Army during World War II, attaining the rank of master sergeant before his discharge in 1946. Dickey then returned to UK where he earned doctorate in secondary education in 1947.

In 1965, Dickey was inducted into the UK Hall of Distinguished Alumni. He was also inducted into the College of Education’s Alumni Hall of Fame in 1989. Dickey and his wife Elizabeth Drymon Dickey presented the College of Education with a new endowed scholarship for graduate students in 2002. In the same year, Dickey received Omicron Delta Kappa’s Laurel Crown Circle Award, the national collegiate leadership honor society’s highest honor.

He is survived by his wife; two sons, Frank G. Dickey, Jr. of Lexington and Joseph Terry Dickey of California; and a daughter, Ann Elizabeth Haynes of Lexington.

Services were held Saturday, Aug. 22, at Crestwood Christian Church in Lexington.