Curtis Dickson, c. 1968
Dr. Curtis Dickson was among those signing their names to the “topping-out” beam on the campus mall Friday. He also signed the name of Dr. Dwain Hart.
It’s only fitting that these two men, legends within the ACU Department of Exercise Science and Nutrition, be among those adding their marks to the Royce and Pam Money Student Recreation and Wellness Center.
Hart was the first chair of the department, and Dickson was his successor. Together, the two men led the Exercise Science division and department a combined 31 years, 1960-91.
In the fall of 1967, when Dickson was a new faculty member set to teach swimming once the new Gibson Health and Physical Education Center opened, the two men took a tour of the new facility.
Dr. Dwain Hart in the early 1970s.
As the men roamed the dirt where soon crews would install the new swimming pool where Dickson would teach classes, they each placed a coin in the soil.
Forty-two years later, the coins presumably are still there, beneath the same pool, which is being renovated — but not replaced — as part of the Wellness Center construction.
It seemed appropriate,” Dickson wrote last weekend, “that I should add our two names to the beam which would be placed above the new pool.”
Later this week, we’ll post an interview with Hart’s daughter, Dr. Kerri Hart, who not only was the driving force behind the Student Recreation and Wellness Center but will be the facility’s program director when it opens in August.
