Leo Randolph Dickson

Loved by so many, Randy was escorted to the everlasting arms of His precious Savior and King on April 19th over the Easter weekend. Born in Roanoke, Virgina on October 26, 1937, to Leo W. Dickson and his wife Martha K. Dickson, he spent his toddler years in North Carolina before the family moved to Portsmouth, Virgina where his dad worked in the Naval Shipyards of Norfolk, Virginia as a mechanical engineer. There he grew up and attended Woodrow Wilson High School where he lettered in track & field along with football. Randy also won the state championship with his high school football team before he enrolled as a cadet at Virgina Tech and graduated with an engineering degree. After working for the Navy in acoustics, he started his career with NASA in 1962 with the Apollo program in acoustics testing. There he worked on the Lunar Lander, the Skylab program with Russian engineers, the Shuttle program as a project manager, and the International Space Station program as the project manager for both the ESSA module and Italian Cupola to see his work sent into space before his retirement in 2002.

Throughout his life, he served faithfully in church. It was as an usher where he met his wife in Houston. Later, they led Sunday school and Bible study classes, and then, he became a deacon, as well as the building director for planting a new church. While there, he offered to take the organ every Sunday to the temporary school location and also held the Wednesday night service in his unfurnished living room with folding chairs until they outgrew it. He also served on the board of various inter-denominational outreach ministries such as Full Gospel Businessmen and CRC Ministries.

When not working and serving, he loved to travel all over the USA and throughout Europe with his wife and family. His first trip was cross-country with a college buddy from the east to west coast in his new Cadillac right after graduation visiting sites like the Grand Canyon. Then, he and his wife spent a lovely honeymoon in Mexico City and Acapulco. Later, they went to Hawaii. As his children grew, they took trips across the southern and eastern states to see friends and family along the way and up to New England to enjoy the fall foliage with his sister and her family. During his time with the ISS, he took his family on vacation breaks throughout Europe along with Scandinavia and St. Petersburg. On other vacations, he took them west to Colorado and up through the northwest as far as Canada along with an Alaskan cruise to celebrate his 50th wedding anniversary. Once grandkids came along, the family spent many summer weeks in Ruidoso, New Mexico staying with his in-laws in the mountains to briefly escape the hot humidity of Clear Lake City.

He is now waiting in Heaven for those he leaves behind: his loving wife of almost 60 years, Ruth Janice Dickson; his son, Joel Dickson and wife, Janet; his daughter, Angela Deschner and husband, Mark; his grandchildren Reagan Dickson and Nathan Deschner; his sister, Annalee Riley and husband, George; along with many extended family and dear friends.