Completing the Circle: Paul Dickinson's Story

The year was 1967 and 20-year-old Paul Dickinson was just beginning to make something of himself. He hadn’t been a great student in high school, and after a difficult start, considered giving up on college. But in the interest of not disappointing his father he decided to stick it out. Paul credits some of the great instructors he met at Glendale College with providing the inspiration he needed to find his footing.  He credits one professor in particular who changed his attitude toward learning. “Dr. Leonard DeGrassi was the inspiration that changed the course of the rest of my life,” said Dickinson.  

Dickinson was a first-generation college student; both his father and grandfather had been linemen for the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power. Although that provided their family with a measure of stability, Paul’s father believed that a college education would be necessary for his son if he wanted to achieve a better life. “It seemed like he was nagging at the time,” Paul remembered, “but he turned out to be so right. I look back on my two years at Glendale College as the turning point in my adult life.”

By the end of his sophomore year at GCC, Paul had earned a 3.9 grade point average and was preparing to transfer to USC—all while working 20–25 hours a week to save money for college. And that’s when even more help arrived, in the form of a $2,000 scholarship awarded by the ladies of the Oakmont League.

“That was a good amount of money back then, and it helped me with expenses at USC,” said Paul. “It was also a great honor.”

Having found the encouragement he needed to succeed at Glendale College, Paul was able to sustain his performance at USC. He earned a bachelor’s degree in international relations in 1969, then completed a master’s program in public administration. “After graduation, I was fortunate to be offered a job with the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission working on an underground nuclear test program,” he said.

For more than 37 years he worked as an administrator in the defense and environmental fields, and in 2008 Paul and his wife Barbara retired and moved to Bend, Oregon. “Just a few months before we were going to move, my wife’s son passed away at the age of 38,” Paul recalled. “He had attended Cal State Chico and had established a scholarship there in memory of his father. When Barbara and I looked into it, we were very impressed with the program he was supporting, so we decided that his share of any family inheritance would go to the university to help expand his scholarship fund.”

“Then my wife said to me, ‘You’re always talking about what Glendale College did for you.’ I got to thinking about it and told her, ‘You know, you’re right,’” Paul explained, “so we decided to do something like that for Glendale.”

The Dickinsons have written Glendale College into their trust. “Once both of us are gone, the trust will divide up the family’s assets, and we specified that $200,000 will go to the college to be used for scholarships,” Paul said.

“I got a lot of help from USC—not financially, but in just about every other way—but it’s at the community college level that this type of support is needed,” he continued. “I know what I went through and how difficult it would have been if I hadn’t gotten that scholarship from the Oakmont League, so I want our money to go to Glendale College and support kids who are trying to be the first in their families to go to college, like I did.”

For more information, please contact Paola Santana, executive director, at (818) 551-5196 or psantana@glendale.edu

More information about Life Insurance/Retirement Plan giving.

The discussion herein is general in nature and may not apply to all individuals. Prospective donors are urged to consult their personal tax and financial advisers concerning the specific consequences of making gifts to Glendale College.