Dr David Dick OBE PhD DIC BA (Hons) MLitt CEng FIET, March 1929 – January 2021
Published: Mon 8 Feb 2021
Engineer - Teacher - Administrator - Man of Letters
David Dick has died aged 92.
Leaving school aged 14, his career took him from practical engineering with the North of Scotland Hydro Board, to teaching to educational management and to success as a writer.
In 1954 he obtained his first academic post as a lecturer in electrical engineering in Dundee College of Science and Technology.
Appointed in 1960 as the head of the new department of electrical engineering at Coatbridge College, he went on to become the Vice Principal of Napier College of Science and technology and aged only thirty-five, he was the youngest Vice Principal in Scotland.
Subsequently, he became Principal of the newly built Stevenson College in Edinburgh.
He was appointed OBE in 1983 and he then retired in 1988 to take up writing, specialising in Biographical History.
He published several books about the history and development of Edinburgh followed by editing “A Scottish Electrical Enlightenment” (2000) for the then Institution of Electrical Engineers.
He graduated BA Hons (2003) at the Open University, MLitt (2006) at the University of Dundee and took a PhD at Edinburgh Napier University in 2013 in his eighty-fifth year.
Between 1960 and 1987, he served on various committees as chairman including the Scottish Council for Technical Education and the Scottish Business Education Council.
As a Fellow of the IET he was active in IET affairs and in 2007 he joined the membership of the committee of the South East Scotland Retired Members Section of the IET.
He became its Chair in 2009 and he received the International IET Volunteer Core Values Award in the category of ‘Excellence’ at the age of 90.
He was a man of deep learning and wide experience and he will be very much missed by his wide circle of colleagues and friends.