Abby Otts, Hannah Gage honored as recipients of Texas A&M’s Dickie scholarship
Abby Otts of Breckenridge and Hannah Gage of Throckmorton were honored at the Aggie Muster in Throckmorton recently as recipients of the George Dickie Jr. Scholarship.
According to information from Texas A&M University, future Aggies from Shackelford, Stephens and Throckmorton counties are eligible for the Texas A&M University scholarship established by Archylou Kinchen Dickie, who died in April 2011. She earmarked about $2.5 million to establish a permanent scholarship in honor of her husband, George D. Dickie Jr., Texas A&M Class of 1946, and son, Christopher Dickie, Class of 1976 at Tarleton State University.
“Archy attended the University of Texas, yet she fully embraced the spirit of Aggieland when she married George,” her cousin Katie Dickie Stavinoha, Texas A&M Class of 1986, said in a 2012 Texas A&M news release. “It’s very fitting, that after remembering favorite charities in Woodson and Breckenridge, that the Aggie spirit will live on through future generations due to her generosity.”
The inaugural scholarships were awarded in 2012 to Emily Grimshaw of Albany and Pricilla Brown of Breckenridge.
The Dickie family has ranched in Shackelford, Stephens and Throckmorton counties since the early 1900s. George was part of the generation whose education was interrupted by World War II. His father, George Sr. was a member of the A&M Class of 1920, and it was his generation that began the Aggie-Dickie connection.
Archylou, who was raised by her mother, Gladys Kirk Kinchen, following the death of her father, Arch, when she was 4, not only became a rancher’s wife, but she also followed in her mother’s footsteps as a businesswoman. Gladys established an insurance agency in Breckenridge, at a time when it was rather uncommon. Archy joined her mother in that business, and then also was part of the Dickie Insurance Agency that she managed with George.
George contracted polio in the 1950s and used a wheelchair for nearly four decades. He ran a lumber company in Woodson, along with the farming and ranching interests he oversaw with his father and then eventually for his two sisters and brother until his death in 1992.
“It was some time after Chris’ unexpected death in 2007 that Archy first mentioned that she might give some money to A&M,” Stavinoha said in the news release. “I thought it was a great idea, but I had no knowledge of her final intent nor the value until after her death. Archy loved a good party and celebration. She would have loved to celebrate these awards.”
Cutline, top photo: Abby Otts, right, from Breckenridge, and Hannah Gage from Throckmorton were this year’s recipients of Texas A&M University’s Dickie scholarship. They were honored at the recent Aggie Muster in Throckmorton. (Courtesy Photo)
