Dixon

David Dean Dixon, 53, of 228 Currie Road, Slippery Rock, Worth Township, died at 6 p.m. Wednesday of an apparent heart attack while bicycling in Virginia.

Born in Ashland, Ky., July 20, 1954, he was the son of Warren E. Dixon and Gladys Fields.

Mr. Dixon was a 1972 Graduate of Slippery Rock High School; in 1976, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in secondary education from SlipperyRock University; in 1983 he earned a master of arts in history from SRU, and he received a doctorate in American history from Kent State University in 1991. He was professor of history at SRUfrom 1999 until the present and was the curator of the Old Stone House.

He received the President's Award for Outstanding Scholarship at SRU in 2006. In 1998, 2000 and 2002, he was the Commonwealth Speaker for Pennsylvania Humanities Council.

Before his career in education, he was an iron worker for Local 3 in Pittsburgh.

He was an author of a number of articles and book reviews and was the author of several books, including "Hero of Beecher Island." He won the Spur Award for the best biography from the Western Writers of America in 1994.

Mr. Dixon was a Catholic.

Surviving are his wife, Amy Christine McKain Dixon, whom he married June 12, 1999; a daughter, Heather I. Banks and her husband, Nathaniel, of Slippery Rock; a grandson, Christopher Banks; and a brother, Warren E. Dixon Jr. of Slippery Rock.

<B>DIXON</B> — Friends of David Dean Dixon, who died Wednesday, July 16, 2008, will be received from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday and 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday at the <B>Smith Funeral Home</B>, 421 New Castle St., Slippery Rock. Services will be at 11 a.m. Monday at the funeral home with Dr. Clarie C. Settlemire, of Slippery Rock University, officiating. Burial will follow at the West Liberty Cemetery.