Dr. William “Bill” Dickey, president emeritus and founder of the Bill Dickey Scholarship Association (BDSA) passed away at age 84. For over 30-years the BDSA has raised more than $3.1 million and distributed over 1,000 scholarships to college-bound minority golfers.
Dickey was one of the most decorated servants of the golf industry, receiving the 1999 PGA Distinguished Service Award, The PGA of America’s highest annual honor, recognizing his humanitarian qualities magnified by his advocacy for minority golfers. He was recipient of the Card Walker Award by the PGA Tour (1992) for significant contributions to junior golf. The University of Maryland-Eastern Shore bestowed an honorary doctorate degree upon Dickey (2007), who was instrumental in the university becoming the first historically Black college to become a member of the PGA of America’s Professional Golf Management University program.
In 1983, he founded the East/West Golf Classic (Scottsdale, Ariz.), generating $1,500 to aid four student golfers. From that, the National Minority Junior Golf Scholarship Association was established and incorporated. The association was renamed the Bill Dickey Scholarship Association. Dickey was also one of the founders of the National Minority Collegiate Golf Championship, now the PGA Minority Collegiate Golf Championship.
Born in Darby, Pa., Dickey attended Virginia Union University on a football scholarship before entering the Air Force. Following his discharge, he moved to Phoenix, and went on to earn a B.S. degree in economics and management from Arizona State University. He enjoyed a successful career as a real estate and insurance executive before retiring in 1981.
Dickey was a life member and six-time president of Desert Mashie Golf Club at Encanto Park in Phoenix. The club became an affiliate of the Western States Golf Association, a regional organization with 30 clubs in six states. Dickey served as WSGA president from 1981-83, during which time he helped launch the WSGA Junior Championship, beginning his promotion of junior golf.
A member of the National Negro Golf Association, a bronze trophy in Dickey’s likeness was donated in 2010 to the United States Golf Association’s Golf House in Far Hills, N.J. The trophy, designed by legendary African American sculptor Ed Dwight, honored the 25th anniversary of the East/West Golf Classic that Dickey founded, and is part of the USGA’s African American Archives.
Among his many honors, Dickey was a 1985 inductee into the Western States Golf Association Hall of Fame; the National Black Golf Hall of Fame (1989); the Arizona Golf Hall of Fame (2000); and the African American Golfers Hall of Fame.
Dickey is survived by his wife, Alice; a daughter, Dorina; four grandsons and three great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by daughters Susie, and Debbie (O’Neil).
To read the Bill Dickey Foundation Obituary in its entirety click HERE.
