Christina Margaret Dickey, "First Lady of Dartmouth" for 25 years, died Dec. 7 of natural causes at age 91. Dickey was the wife of John Sloan Dickey, College president from 1945 to 1970.
In a statement, College President James Freedman said, "Mrs. Dickey earned the admiration and affection of an entire generation of Dartmouth students, faculty, alumni, and friends. She was a grand person whose contributions to the College will long be remembered."
Dickey was known as a quiet but gracious hostess, a woman "very much of the old style," according to History Professor Charles Wood.
"Christina was a wonderful person to have around," said Wood, who lived next door to the Dickeys and first met Christina Dickey in 1964. "She was a good neighbor."
Wood said Dickey projected a different image as the College president's wife than her successors.
"She projected a type of maternal image," Wood said. "There was definitely a sense that she was genuinely a kind of mother-figure for people."
In 1970 she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree at the inauguration of incoming College President John Kemeny. In his speech Kemeny praised Dickey for her "gentle presence, a quiet competence, and an unfailing sensitivity to the feelings of others."
Mrs. Dickey was born Christina Gillespie in Cleveland, Ohio, on March 17, 1905. She was raised in Exeter, where her father was a teacher at Exeter Academy.
She graduated from Wellesley College as an English major in 1926 and went on to receive a library science degree from Simmons College in 1927.
After graduation she became the library assistant at the College. She was present when the newly constructed Baker Library first loaned a book to a student.
It was at Baker Library that she met John Sloan Dickey, who was a Dartmouth undergraduate at the time. They were married in 1932 and lived in Boston and Washington, D.C. before returning to Hanover in 1945 when Mr. Dickey became Dartmouth's 12th president.
Mrs. Dickey was on the board of trustees of the Howe Library in Hanover. She was a member of the Hanover Garden Club and played an active role in the Pine Park Commission.
Dickey's interest in gardening led her to maintain both a vegetable and a flower garden while at Dartmouth. Wood said one of her great loves was raising African violets in the basement of the President's house.
Her love of needlepoint led Dickey to design chair seats which have become permanent fixtures of the president's house. Along with designer John Scotford, Dickey researched, designed and created 12 chair seats to represent the first 12 presidents of the College.
The College has preserved the tradition she began, commissioning the creation of chair seats for the three most recent Dartmouth presidents.
Dickey is survived by her three children, Sylvia Dickey of Wellesley, Mass.; Christina Stearns of Gansevoort, N.Y.; and John Dickey Jr. of San Antonio, Texas; and grandchildren Nathaniel Dickey, Christina Stearns Dreschner and Sarah Stearns.
