August 10, 2006 Issue
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Classified Chestnut Hill Local Online Editor Don't Miss an Issue, Tell us what you see or ©2006 Chestnut Hill Local Winner of One |
Philanthropist, civic leader Dixon dies at 82
Fitz Eugene Dixon, one of the Chestnut Hill area’s most notable civic leaders and philanthropists died last week, August 2 at the age of 82.He had been suffering from cancer for a year and finally succumbed to melanoma at Abington Memorial hospital. Mr. Dixon’s farm estate covers 500 acres of bucolic fields and forests along the Wissahickon Creek just outside of Chestnut Hill in Whitemarsh Township. The farm is home to sheep, race horses and black Angus cattle and to a vast, formal garden and green houses; it’s the picturesque parcel one encounters on a drive along Stenton Avenue from Chestnut Hill. One of his best-known civic accomplishments is the 1976 purchase of the Love Statue that currently stands at the head of JFK Plaza in Center City. Dixon purchased the statue from the Robert Indiana studio after the artist had removed it from the city failed to come up with the $45,000 he had requested for its purchase. Dixon bought the statue at a $10,000 discount soon after and gave the statue to the city. Despite vast wealth — he was the heir of the Widener/Elkins fortune — Mr. Dixon never lived the life of a millionaire slacker, a lifestyle that was well within his reach.
Mr. Dixon was born in his family’s summer estate in the Grindstone Neck section of Winter Harbor, Maine, but grew up at the family farm in Whitemarsh. His great-grandfather P.A.B. Widener made the family fortune in meat sales to the Union army during the Civil War and later in investments in streetcars, steel and tobacco industries. His son and grandson, Mr. Dixon’s grandfather and uncle, died aboard the Titanic. He attended Episcopal Academy and went on to graduate from Harvard University. After Harvard, he returned to the family home and went to work for Episcopal Academy as a teacher of English and French. He coached tennis, squash and football and later served the school as director of both athletics and admissions. Later, Mr. Dixon became an owner and investor of Philadelphia sports franchises. He was an investor in the Eagles, the Phillies and the Flyers, but his most notable sports investment was the Philadelphia 76ers. Dixon purchased the professional basketball franchise in 1976 and brought Julias “Dr. J.” Irving to town for $6.6 million in the short time he owned the team, it made it to the finals twice but never won a championship. He sold the team to Harold Katz in 1981. Mr. Dixon’s other sport was horses. He bred race horses on his farm served and was a long-time member of Pennsylvania’s Horse Racing Commission. He donated $30,000 to rebuild a track at the Devon Horse Show and recently purchased an offspring of Smarty Jones, the Philadelphia horse that won the 2004 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes. In the period of his life that followed his involvement with professional sports, Mr. Dixon became a tireless civic leader, donating his time and energy to a wide number of civic institutions. He served the boards of the Fairmount Park Commission, the Art Commission and the Delaware Port Authority and was chairman of all three. He served as the chairman of the State System of Higher Education from 1983, when he was picked by former governor Dick Thornburgh to do so, to 2002. Throughout his life, he said he was most proud of his work in education, as both a teacher and coach. As a philanthropist, Mr. Dixon contributed a great deal of money to hospitals. He endowed Abington Memorial Hospital’s Dixon School of Nursing with $5 million dollars and pledged to ensure that every student admitted to the school would get the financial aid he or she needed to attend. He is survived by his wife, Edith Dixon, his son George Widener Dixon, daughter Ellin Dixon Miller, three grandchildren and one great-grandchild. A memorial service will be held Friday, September 29, 2006 11:00 A.M. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church located at 22 E. Chestnut Hill Avenue, Philadelphia, Pa 19118.
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