Edith Robb Dixon raises an
American flag in memory of her
late husband, F. Eugene “Fitz”
Dixon Jr., during a ceremony
Sunday at the Eleanor Widener
Dixon Memorial Clinic in West
Gouldsboro. Assisting her is
Larry Smith of Winter Harbor, a
member of the clinic’s executive
committee.—STAFF PHOTO BY TOM
WALSH |
GOULDSBORO —
Emotions were running as high as the heat
and humidity on Sunday as more than 100
friends and family gathered to remember “Fitz.”
It’s been
just over a year since F. Eugene “Fitz”
Dixon Jr. died in a Philadelphia area
hospital a few days shy of his 83rd
birthday. Born on Aug. 14, 1923, in Winter
Harbor’s Grindstone Neck summer colony, the
prominent Philadelphia businessman and
philanthropist summered there throughout his
lifetime.
Three-year-old Moira Sankey of
Gouldsboro was the youngest of
the more than 100 friends and
family of “Fitz” Dixon attending
Sunday’s dedication of a
flagpole in his memory. Her
father, Andrew, is a member of
the executive committee of the
Eleanor Widener Dixon Memorial
Clinic in West Gouldsboro.—STAFF
PHOTO BY TOM WALSH |
Many of his
Grindstone Neck neighbors were among those
attending Sunday’s dedication of a flagpole
erected in his honor at the Eleanor Widener
Dixon Memorial Clinic in West Gouldsboro.
The Schoodic Peninsula medical clinic is
named for Dixon’s mother and was built with
the help of his financial support.
Raising an
American flag in his memory at the event was
Dixon’s wife of 54 years, Edith Robb Dixon.
“I decided to
put ‘faith, hope and love’ on the plaque,”
she said. “That was Fitzy’s favorite Bible
passage from 1st Corinthians, Chapter 13. I
think it’s fitting for here because we have
to have a lot of faith in our doctors and
staff here, and we do, and a lot of faith in
ourselves and in our God. And we have to
have a lot of hope for ourselves, too, hope
that they can cure us. And a lot of hope in
the future and what’s going to go on in this
community in the future.
“Last of all,
you have to have a lot of love, and Fitzy
had a lot of love for this area. He really
did. He loved the people here. He always
tried to help the people who had trouble
helping themselves. He did a lot of things
you all really never heard of in the town
and the area.”
Dixon’s
legendary generosity extended to the Maine
Coast Memorial Hospital in Ellsworth, which
he helped to found. Over the years, Dixon
donated more than $7 million to the
hospital, including a $5 million bequest
from his estate announced last week.
Speaking at
Sunday’s dedication ceremony, Doug Jones,
the hospital’s CEO and president, said the
bequest is “the biggest gift any small
hospital in Maine has ever received.”
“The Maine
Coast Memorial Hospital could not be what it
is today without the love and support of
Fitz Dixon,” Jones said Sunday. “Fitz gave
us over $7 million from the time I came to
Maine Coast Memorial, including his legacy
gift that he gave to us recently. We are
absolutely blessed to have a friend like
Fitz Eugene Dixon Jr.”
Also
remembering Fitz at Sunday’s ceremony was
Larry Smith of Winter Harbor, a longtime
caretaker at Grindstone Neck and a member of
the medical clinic’s executive committee.
Smith’s many duties at Grindstone Neck have
ranged from keeping the enclave shipshape to
occasionally cutting Dixon’s hair.
Smith said a
flagpole seemed a fitting reminder of
Dixon’s concern for the people of Winter
Harbor and beyond.
“He always
had that care for others,” Smith said. “In
trying to decide what we could do at the
clinic, which was named after his mother and
he’s been right here helping us ever since,
we wanted to do something that would be
lasting. We decided that, if we put a pole
up with a flag flying, as we went by we
would always remember what a friend we had
in Mr. Dixon. That’s what this is all about
today.”
The 20-minute
dedication ceremony was followed by a
reception that included refreshments and
tours of the medical clinic. |
