HCR 31

R-40  Page 1 of 1
2025
No. R-40. House concurrent resolution in memory of former University of Vermont
associate professor, poet, and community leader Mary Jane Dickerson.
                                         (H.C.R.31)
   Offered by Representatives Graning of Jericho and Squirrell of Underhill
   Whereas, Mary Jane Dickerson graduated from the former Woman’s College at the
University of North Carolina at Greensboro and earned a master’s degree in English from
the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where she met her future husband, the late
A. Inskip Dickerson Jr., both destined to become University of Vermont (UVM) English
professors, and
   Whereas, her UVM career roles were director of freshman English, associate director
of writing, and ultimately associate professor of English; and she developed a course in
women’s autobiography and UVM’s first class in African American literature, and
   Whereas, Mary Jane Dickerson was the recipient of UVM’s George V. Kidder
Outstanding Faculty Award; in 2007, established the Mary Jane Dickerson Scholarship
Fund to support English majors; was delighted to teach as a visiting scholar in Japan and
South Africa; and in 2016, was honored with induction into the distinguished society of
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and
    Whereas, she applied her literary expertise to teaching classes in reading and writing
at local libraries; serving on the faculty of the New England Young Writers’ Conference
at Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf School of English; and publishing two volumes of
poetry, Water Journeys in Art and Poetry and Tapping the Center of Things: Poems, and
her community service consisted of serving on the boards of UVM’s Fleming Museum
and the Deborah Rawson Memorial Library in Jericho, on the Jericho Zoning Board of
Adjustment and Board of Civil Authority, and as the Jericho Center Preservation
Association Treasurer; and she was active in local Democratic politics, and
   Whereas, Mary Jane Dickerson, a cherished friend to many, who took great pride in
cofounding Sundog Poetry, an organization that supports Vermont poets, and whose
passion for North Carolina’s Sandhills endured, died on October 3, 2024 at 87 years of
age, and is survived by her children and grandchildren, now therefore be it
   Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives:
  That the General Assembly extends its sincere condolences to the family of Mary Jane
Dickerson, and be it further
   Resolved: That the Secretary of State be directed to send a copy of this resolution to
the family of Mary Jane Dickerson and the Jericho Town Clerk.
                                                                            VT LEG #382064 v.1