Richard Dixon, erudite and charming infectious disease physician, educator, writer, and entrepreneur who was committed to healthcare reform, died November, 30, 2020. He was 78. At the time of Richard's death, he was living with his beloved wife, Sarah, in a retirement community in Spokane, WA. 

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When Richard was an undergraduate history major at Princeton University, he envisioned life as a history professor or doing something in politics or public policy. It was a more idealistic time then, a time when virtually all agreed that government was good. But late in his senior year, he saw a movie about a surgeon. In the dim light reflected from the movie screen, he looked down at his hands and said “these hands can heal!” Such are the impetuous ways that 20-year-olds can make life-changing decisions
. . . in the dark.

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A few years later, just prior to graduating from Vanderbilt Medical School, a famous recruiter of Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officers from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) whispered in Richard's ear: “EIS.” Tempted by the encouragement, he joined CDC in 1971 as an EIS officer, after his medical residency training at the University of Washington and Massachusetts General Hospital. He was in the right place at the right time. CDC was just beginning a program focused on hospital-acquired infections, and Richard was named the first Chief of that Branch during his second year. Over the next few years, his Branch designed and tested the definitions of nosocomial (hospital-acquired) infections vs. community-acquired infections, defined the epidemiology of hospital-associated infections, and tested a variety of prevention and control measures that are still used today. His Branch also published some of the first explicitly evidence-based guidelines. When it was shown that infection control programs were effective, their use became a virtual mandate in all US hospitals and have since spread to hospitals around the world.

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Among other highlights of this period was Richard's support to the Secretary’s Ethics Advisory Board and his managing of CDC’s response to importation of highly contagious and lethal infections from abroad—infections like Marburg, Smallpox, Ebola, swine-flu and the like. He was an Emergency Operations Center-of-one, commanding all the resources of the Astronaut Isolation Chamber. 

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His most prominent moment was hosting the national press conference announcing the deaths of two CDC employees who worked in CDC’s maximum containment laboratory building—deaths that CDC presumptively assumed to be worksite related. (That presumption was subsequently confirmed by the investigation that Richard led.) The press conference was the lead story of the evening news broadcasts of two national networks. In those days, very young and inexperienced CDC staff were often thrust into situations that, today, older and more experienced staff regularly handle.

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But Richard’s mother kept asking him when he was going to be a “real doctor,” so he reluctantly departed CDC to take a position where he was Physician-in-Chief, Director of the Department of Medicine, and residency training Director in a New Jersey hospital. While there, he thrived in his consultative infectious disease practice and became involved in the initial response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, while also continuing his work on nosocomial infections nationally and internationally. 

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Having been offered national and regional leadership opportunities, Richard was then recruited to take on the role of Medical Director of a large San Francisco-area physicians group. While living in California, he started two statewide programs designed to improve quality measurement and the sharing of data among providers, plans, and purchasers. He also served as the Executive Vice President and Medical Director for a nationwide trade association of physician groups and, subsequently, as a Vice President of The Lewin Group, a policy, research, and consulting firm. These roles gave him rich ties to organizations focused on health outcomes, policy, and economics.

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In 2002, Richard’s former Deputy encouraged him to return to CDC, suggesting that his broad experience with health departments, clinical practice, and other federal agencies might help CDC work more effectively with non-traditional partners. During this CDC tenure, a particularly notable activity was his involvement with developing Public Health Ethics, allowing him to again focus on medical ethics, one of his passions.

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After retiring from the CDC, Richard returned to California in 2010, where he and Sarah lived about an hour from Lake Tahoe ski areas and 10 minutes from some of their favorite vineyards. They relished this time, exploring the wonders of Northern California again. Professionally, Richard returned to another world he knew well, taking on a position as Medical Director for a managed care organization. 

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Richard was born in Nashville, TN in 1942 to Erwin and Lucille (Grimsley) Dixon. His charm and magnetism were evident at a young age, being voted ‘most friendly' and ‘most energetic’ by his high school classmates at Battle Ground Academy in Nashville. Throughout his life, these traits never diminished. Full of character and substance, Richard was a gifted teacher. Early on, he coached a swim team, and later during college, he taught sailing out in the San Juans Islands, north of Seattle, WA. Throughout his career, he taught and mentored medical students and residents. When his students (or daughters) mastered whatever it was he was teaching, he would beam, with his bright smile and sparkling blue eyes, and exclaim: “Yes! That’s right! You’ve got it!”

 

Richard was also a proud feminist and father to his two girls, and grandfather to his granddaughter. He always used “she” when referring to leaders in his writing, long before it was fashionable. He pushed his daughters and granddaughter to find their passions and their voices, to be compassionate, and to command attention. As his daughters applied for college, Richard encouraged both of them to consider an all-women’s college, as he had been impressed with the data suggesting that women educated in the best of these schools not only received superb educations, but also gained an inestimable sense of confidence and worth.

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Richard had an insatiable love for learning and enjoyed writing as much as medicine. Whether it was an email to his family, a memo to a teammate, or the family's annual Christmas letter, he loved the arc of a great narrative, and weaved humor into everything he wrote. He had a penchant for silly puns, prompting countless groans from friends and colleagues alike. In recent years he reread all the classics and was teaching himself Spanish. Though ever self-deprecating, he loved to joke that when he tried to use his Spanish in Mexico, it was difficult to understand the Mexicans’ replies because they were laughing so hard. He was an early adopter of technology, having an amateur radio license in 1956 at age 14, and later acquiring IBM’s first personal computer, the first mobile phone, the first home video camera, and so on. In the early 1980s, before virtual reality was even a thing, he played for hours on flight simulation software from his PC, which he ran using DOS commands. In 1984, his inventive medical education curriculum, produced on video disk, won first place at the John Muir Medical Film Festival and second at the International Film and Television Festival of New York.

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Richard dove into everything with enthusiasm and dedication. In 1969, after graduating from medical school, he and Sarah drove their new Chevrolet cross-country, towing their VW, complete with a sailboat atop. They made the trip without mishap, incurring only astounded glances and snide remarks from observers. Soon after arriving in Seattle, WA, they were self-proclaimed campers, and within weeks both were enrolled in skiing and sailing lessons. Their apartment was only a 3-minute walk to the slip where they moored their sailboat, and they filled their lives with adventure by night skiing at Snoqualmie Pass, just 45-minutes outside the city. 

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In 1980, with their move to Princeton, NJ, Richard and Sarah purchased a stone house of Federal period design built in 1813. A functioning drinking well, an ice-house, and a magnificent three-story barn built in 1746 dotted the two-acre property. Inspired by an unflinching commitment to historical preservation, the entire family spent a decade meticulously restoring every aspect of the home. Scaffolding was a permanent fixture on the facade as they scraped away hundreds of years of Federal-era paint and Richard tuckpointed the stone facade back to its original condition, an effort that earned them a revered ‘preservation award’ from the local historical society in 1989.

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In the 1990s when Richard and Sarah returned to the west coast, Richard discovered new passions—California, his Mazda Miata, and gourmet cooking—that would hold his attention for the rest of his life. California looked good on Richard. His complexion never faded from a rosy bronze, and his gaze never wandered far from the view of golden hills outside the window. Daily, he woke early and exercised as the blazing sunlight streamed in. In recent years, his old Concept II rowing machine developed a warm patina, evidence of the countless hours Richard spent honing his fitness discipline. The Miata’s unpretentious curves, convertible roof, and spunky engine fit Richard like a glove. As did the Miata community. He loved attending rallies, zipping around the Bay Area hills with other Miata fanatics. Cooking was Richard’s creative outlet. It was how he unwound after a full day. And he never met a cooking gadget that he didn’t need right away! (His daughters now lament: "If only we had had the forethought to purchase stock in Williams Sonoma!") 

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In 2013, Richard retired to enjoy the slower pace of small-town Jackson, CA. But he didn’t rest long before plunging into entrepreneurship, working to launch a healthcare tech startup. And yet, whenever he was asked what his favorite pastime was, Richard would not skip a beat: "That's easy," he would say. "My job is to dote on my beautiful wife and make my family as happy as I possibly can." Sarah and Richard recently celebrated their 53rd wedding anniversary in Spokane, WA, having moved to Washington to be closer to their daughters. Throughout life, they loved to travel together and spent time all over Europe as well as India, Israel, Hong Kong, China, and Mexico.

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Richard is survived by his wife Sarah (Dawson) Dixon, his daughters and their spouses, Rebecca Dixon and Anne Kieryn, Ashley (Dixon) Saleeba and Chris Saleeba, and his granddaughter, Lola Saleeba.

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Epilogue, December 21, 2020

As this year comes to a close, and we look around to observe the stack of unread medical journals that Richard never seemed to diminish, that final trip to Mexico never taken, new recipes never tested, and inspired business ideas that never took flight, we step back in awe. We are forever grateful for all that Richard did to help so many people. Contributing to the greater good was his life. He was a giant in his world, having enormous impact. As such, the tragic irony is not lost on us that Richard died in 2020, in the midst of this infectious disease pandemic, one of the worst public health crises of our time. We will always long to talk with him about it all, to ask for his advice on where we might go from here. But we’re pretty sure we know what he would tell us: just keep marching forward, keep working hard, keep caring for others. Be optimistic. Never lose faith in science, and never doubt your ability to change the world. And please, don't forget to exercise.

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