Fitz Eugene Dixon and Acadia Partners
Mr. Dixon was born in Winter Harbor, and so was a part of this community all his life–and this community was a part of him. As we listened to the recollections at today’s memorial service at St. Christopher’s By the Sea, it was clear that he touched the lives of many people and that he enjoyed friendships here that spanned many years–lifetimes, in some cases.
In the case of the staff here at Acadia Partners for Science and Learning, our recent acquaintance with Mr. Dixon has been primarily in the context of this organization. It was clear from the outset that Acadia Partners embodied things that mattered to Mr. Dixon. It is connected to the communities here on the Schoodic Peninsula, its mission revolves around knowledge and learning, and its work focuses on Schoodic and the rest of Acadia National Park–and its protection into the future.
Without Mr. Dixon’s early, active engagement, Acadia Partners would not have the health and the reach that it has today. He provided significant financial support, but, just as important, he connected other people to Acadia Partners. A good portion of the board of directors that currently guides our growth first became engaged because Mr. Dixon shared his enthusiasm for our mission. Beyond the board of directors, Mr. Dixon connected Acadia Partners to other individuals and institutions that will continue to be partners and supporters as we grow.
In our own dealings with him, one of the things that we appreciated was his focus on the “big picture.” Acadia Partners is a new organization that is providing a new kind of support for National Parks. We do not have a template to work from. We are inventing something here — a way to support scientific research and education in the National Parks that has not been tried before. As you might imagine, this work does not always proceed stepwise, one foot after the other in a straight line toward the goal. Sometimes our progress works that way, but other times we find that we encounter an unexpected barrier that we have to work around. Sometimes we also find unexpected opportunities. In doing this kind of work–inventing something–having a Board President who stayed focused on the big picture was essential to our ability to continue to grow and move forward. The question that he asked of the Acadia Partners staff was whether we were headed toward the goal. The fact that the actual path we ended up taking was sometimes different than planned was not a primary concern. It was keeping the boat headed toward the finish line that was important.
We have been very fortunate to have such leadership during these first, very formative years at Acadia Partners. Focusing on the goal, and being flexible and creative with the means to reach it, has been an essential ingredient to our success to date.
The other dimension of Mr. Dixon’s leadership style that is firmly imprinted on this organization is attention to the power of leverage. In his support for Acadia Partners and other organizations, he often offered matching grants, rather than direct support. This is one manifestation of leverage–using his money to open up other resources. It is certainly an approach that he used here. It is also a technique that we have adopted–taking a page out of the Fitz Eugene Dixon playbook–as we have gone to foundations asking for support. We often ask for support that we can use to bring other, private support to the table. It is an approach that has brought consistently good results.
Mr. Dixon also liked finding ways to make each dollar return multiple benefits — another version of leverage. That focus has also become part of the genetic code that shapes Acadia Partners. For example, we have found ways to invest in research that provides immediate benefit to the Park, while also providing educational opportunities for high school students, new information about citizen engagement in data collection, and new opportunities to enable private citizens to provide financial support for research in the Park.
All of which is to say that Mr. Dixon did not just provide money here. He helped Acadia Partners develop a style and approach that is essential to the innovative work that we have to do. He helped create an organization that embodies a little of what he learned in a lifetime of service to higher causes.
In the last weeks of his life Mr. Dixon also decided to lend his name to an initiative here — the Fitz Eugene Dixon Fellowships. Characteristically, he told Alan Goldstein, who also serves on our board, that he wanted to get the Fitz Eugene Dixon Fellowship program started by offering a challenge grant–there is the focus on leverage again–matching the first $100,000 that we raise with another $50,000 of his own money.
We are honored to have responsibility for raising the money for fellowships that bear Mr. Dixon’s name. As they grow and bring new knowledge and benefits to Acadia over the coming years, the Fitz Eugene Dixon Fellowships will be an appropriate, powerful way to recognize Mr. Dixon’s contribution to this organization, to the Park, and to the surrounding communities.
Acadia Partners was a late addition to the tapestry of philanthropy, investment, and other work in Mr. Dixon’s life. We honored to be a small part of that colorful, much larger picture. We will most certainly keep Acadia Partners’ boat headed toward the finish line, and we will continue to strive to embody the spirit and insight that he shared with us.
– The Staff at Acadia Partners for Science and Learning
Denny O’Brien, Michelle Bierman, and Bill Zoellick
August 14, 2006