Baylor Mourns Death Of Retired Geology Professor

by Judy Long

Dr. James William Dixon Jr., professor emeritus of Baylor University and former chair of the geology department, died Feb. 23 at the age of 91.
Services were held Monday, Feb. 28, at Waco Memorial Mausoleum Chapel with Rev. Wally Christian and Dr. Herbert H. Reynolds officiating. Burial followed at Waco Memorial North.
Memorials can be made to Baylor University, Gifts Accounting, One Bear Place, #97050, Waco, Texas 76798.
Dixon was born July 12, 1913, to J.W. and Mary Elizabeth Dixon, the second of four boys, in Wingate, Texas. He married Lenora Cornwell on June 2, 1938, in First Baptist Church, Waco. He was a member of Cornerstone Baptist Church in recent years.
Dixon received his bachelors and master's degrees from Baylor and his doctorate from University of Wisconsin. Before becoming a college professor, he taught for several years in Texas high schools. He taught in the geology department at Baylor for 36 years until he retired in 1977, with only a brief interruption to teach in the Air Force and Navy during World War II.
After 66 years of marriage, Lenora preceded him in death on Jan. 31, 2005. He is survived two brothers and many nieces and nephews.