Marcus Dick and Paul Grice

Speranza

"Marcus Dick came to UEA in October 1963 as Professor of Philosophy, and I was one of his first students", a member to the Grice club wrote.

"He was one of the most interesting men I ever met," this Grice club member goes on, "and one of the kindest too - although clearly a tortured soul in some respects. I continued to see him after I graduated, and was devastated when he died."


---


Dick was possibly the first alphabetically ordered member of Austin´s "kindergartens"

From:

http://kevinsteel.org/2007/11/02/a-dicks-life-the-browning-version/

"Marcus William Dick was a fellow and senior tutor at Balliol College, Oxford. There is a memorial plaque on a wall there with his name on it. He would move on to then newly minted University of East Anglia where he was appointed a full Professor of Philosophy."

--- By that time, he was an Austinian no more. Other monsters at UEA/Norwich include Grice, (Godfrey Russell), and M. Hollis. In the English Dept, A. N. Wilson and M. Bradbury were also good.

"Dick´s early education he received at Winchester College. While still at Oxford, he was associated with A.N. Prior."

--- This was a South-African.
Very witty by the title of all his essays in his posthumous collection on tense logic with the Clarendon Press.

"In 1956, Dick helped Prior organize the first Logical Colloquium held in Britain, in Oxford in 1956."

"“A small ad hoc committee was formed, and Marcus Dick arranged for a lecture room at Balliol.”"

"We actually have a interesting little detail available to us on that event; on July 15, 1956, at 10:30 in the morning, he chaired a session,
C.A. Meredith: Theory of Deduction in Combinatory Logic."
"To my surprise, Dick was actually quoted in
public, albeit from memory, as recently as this
year in a January "Daily Mirror" column."

"In the quote, Marcus Dick displays a bit of academic arrogance;"
--- He does not! YOU display a bit of inverse snobbery!

"Brodhurst spoke to Marcus Dick, then senior tutor at Balliol, and an old Wykehamist."

"“Tiger Pataudi, oh yes, the cricketer,” sniffed Marcus Dick, “quite brainless I should think, and my dear old boy, there are thousands wanting to read History.”"

----

"There is some of publishing history on Marcus Dick. In 1952, he revised the 5th edition of "Oxford, As it was yesterday & as it is today" by Christopher Hobhouse."

--- MY KIND OF READING! But give me Zuleika Dobson anyday! Or Tom Hughes at Oxford, even!

"And in 1956, he provided the text for "A Portrait of Oxford." A selection of photographs by A. F. Kersting."

--- My kind of coffetable reading. Oxford can have some fascinating little corners, etc, and photographed in the early morning or sun set, it can look pretty gloious. The Meadows, The Cherwell, The Isis, Parson´s Pleasure. Lots of acquatic views (Magdalen Bridge) out of which you can get a few impressionistic snapshots. Etc.

"I could find no publishing history for his wife, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist."

"It’s impossible to tell from this distance, and with only little bits of information floating around on the web, the what-and-why of anything; these are only tiny glimpses into a life though the lens of technology that didn’t exist when that life ended."

"Marcus Dick died in 1971 when Cressida was eleven."

"His date of birth isn’t listed in this peerage report, only the year of his death."

"Even that omission is somewhat revealing–like the Wikipedia entry on Cressida, someone has taken care to make sure the maternal side of Cressida’s family is well-represented here, but not her father’s side."

"There was heart-break before his death."

"Cressida’s parents had officially split up three years before that, divorcing in 1968, when she was only eight."

"It was upon seeing that little bit of info about the divorce that my mind suddenly turned on the 1951 film, "The Browning Version", based on the play, the story of a life-battered gentle scholar suffering various indignities, including an unfaithful wife."

"Not that I’m suggesting I have any clue as to why the Dicks, two scholars, divorced."

"I often think of that film when English scholars are mentioned."

"My guess is that the split was a long time in coming, as these things don’t happen overnight."


"Marcus Dick had taken the position of Professor of Philosophy University of East Anglia sometime after 1963."

"Dick is mentioned several times in "The History of the University of East Anglia, Norwich" by M. Sanderson, but not all the references in the book are available online."

"Dick is referred to as one of the original scholars, though."

"Norwich is about 170 miles–or three hours drive–away from then Dick family home in Oxford."

"In Cecilia Dick’s obituary we see she was promoted from lecturer to Ordinary Fellow in 1965 and a year later appointed Domestic Bursar."

"The promotion and extra duties no doubt provided extra income."

"That would have been right around the time husband Marcus was heading off to East Anglia."

"It was also a year after her own father (and Cressida’s maternal grandfather) Wing Commander Denis Alfred Jex Buxton, died at age 69."

"Husband Marcus, the logician, was probably no wing commander."

"Cecilia would herself die at the age of 68."

"Her mother would die in 1970, a year before Marcus, though I can’t tell how old she was when she passed away."

"1970 and 1971, losing your grandmother and then your father, those would have been a tough two years for young Cressida."

"Did Cressida idealize her dead father?"

"First of all, it should be remarked that Cressida attended the college where her father once taught, Balliol, in 1979."

"In 2002, on November 21, Cressida gave a speech to Balliol alumni."

""In a most moving part of the speech, she spoke of her late father, who had been a Fellow and Tutor at Balliol for a number of years.""

"Cressida Dick was born on October 16, 1960."

"So let me end with another quote, from Chaucer, the lament of Cressida’s namesake."

""Alas, of me until the world’s end shall be wrote no good song."