JAMES F. DICKE II ’64 NAMED CULVER’S 36th MAN OF THE YEAR

Award honors decades of service to Culver Academies and town of Culver

            James F. Dicke II ’64 was named Culver’s 36th Man of the Year during a May 25 on-campus ceremony in Eppley Auditorium.

            “This is a day I will always cherish,” said Dicke, who was joined in the audience by his wife Janet, daughter Jennifer ’94 and son Jim ’89 (pictured).  “If each of our lives could be defined by a dozen or so special moments, this will be one of those times for me.  In fact, like family, my Culver friends have been so important in my life that a number of those defining moments have happened on this campus, in this auditorium, in these classrooms, or just sitting on a bench by the lake.”

Dicke is Chairman and CEO of Ohio-based Crown Equipment Company, the largest manufacturer of forklift trucks in the United States and the fifth-largest in the world.  An emeritus member of The Culver Educational Foundation Board of Trustees, he actively served for 23 years and still serves on the Board of his college alma mater, Trinity University in Texas. An active volunteer at Culver since graduation, Dicke served as co-chair for the Choices for Culver campaign and as a member of the Committee of the Horse. He also was Vice President, Senior Vice President and President of the Culver Legion Board and Vice President, Secretary of Culver’s Board of Trustees.

           “Today we gather to honor and thank Mr. James F. Dicke II, Culver Class of 1964, for his extraordinary record of accomplishment and service in business, education, and in society,” Head of Schools John Buxton said. “Jim’s selection for this important award has been characterized as long overdue and much deserved. Culver’s past Man or Woman of the Year recipients have been the leaders of business, industry, law, entertainment and sports, the arts, and medicine.  Jim Dicke II actually fits several of the above categories.” 

           Traditionally, the Man or Woman of the Year receives the Culver Eagle statue, hand-carved by sculptor Mike Curtis of Sagle, Idaho.  To mark the significance of Dicke’s contributions to Culver, he was the second alumnus in the history of the school to be presented with the Logansport Medallion, an award originally presented to the cadets who helped save the residents of Logansport during the flood in 1913.  The Logansport Medallion presented to Dicke was framed along with two photographs of cadets participating in the 1913 rescue and the citation naming him Man of the Year.  Following the presentation, Dicke received a standing ovation (left) from the auditorium filled with guests and the student body. 

The Dicke family has contributed personally to build the town of Culver through neighborhood reclamation projects, thoughtful building and preservation work, and the creation of green spaces and parks. They also provided the Academies with the Strow Lounge in Ithaka Dorm, the Eilleen Dicke Theatre, the Dicke Hall of Mathematics, and the restored Legion Memorial Building, which also houses the Dicke Administrative Center. 

Mr. Dicke also has served on the Board of Directors of the Smithsonian American Art Museum Commissioners, the Anderson-Cooke Air Force Museum Foundation, the Dayton Power and Light Company, the National Museum of American Art, the Advisory Committee for the Arts at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Arts, and the Bicycle Museum of America.  He has been a member of the Chief Executives Organization, the World Presidents Organization, past International President of the Young Presidents Organization, the Dayton Art Institute, as well as five corporate boards.