Dickie scholarships given

By Kathy Thomson

Future Aggie and current Albany High School senior Addison Asher is one of three 2020 graduates who will benefit from the generosity of the late Archylou Kinchen Dickie as a recipient of one of the scholarships she helped fund in memory of her husband George D. Dickie Jr.

The scholarship fund, run through Texas A&M University, provides three scholarships a year to benefit students from Stephens, Shackelford, and Throckmorton counties.

Archylou Dickie, who died in April 2011, earmarked about $2.5 million toward the scholarship fund. 

“Students from Stevens, Shackelford, and Throckmorton counties who have applied to Texas A&M and filed through financial aid are eligible,” said Roger Tonne, A&M class of 1977, and one of the leaders of the Possum Kingdom Area Aggies Association of Former Students. “We will have 17 total students from the area on that scholarship. In the past, each scholarship was for $40,000 over four years, but this year, each one will be for $50,000 over five years.”

The other recipients are from Breckenridge.

Asher found out that she had been selected for the scholarship on Monday, April 13.

“We were driving when I got the phone call,” said Asher. “The lady on the phone had just asked if I would accept the scholarship when there was a bunch of static on the line and I was afraid that my phone had dropped the call. Luckily, she was still on the line when we got to a place with better reception.” 

Asher is planning to major in biomedical science and eventually attend the School of Veterinary Medicine at Texas A&M. 

“It’s going to be a lot of help,” Asher said. “I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to work a lot while in school and could get by just working part time.”

Asher said that she has been interested in veterinary medicine for a while and has enjoyed volunteering with Dr. Neil Fambro in Breckenridge.

“My freshman year I got to assist Dr. Fambro with a C-section on my own goat,” she said. “It was in the middle of the night, and I told everyone at school about it the next day.”

Although the kid could not be revived, Asher got to hold the uterus during the procedure, the nanny recovered, and Asher found out just how much she enjoys surgery on animals.

Asher is the daughter of Stephanie and Sonny Asher of Breckenridge and will graduate as valedictorian of the Albany High School class of 2020.

Dickie Scholarship

The Dickie family began ranching in Shackelford, Stevens, and Throckmorton counties in the early 1900s. George D. Dickie Jr. was a member of the Texas A&M class of 1946, and his father, George Sr., was class of 1920. 

Although Archylou Dickie attended the University of Texas, she “fully embraced the spirit of Aggieland when she married George,” according to cousin Katie Dickie Statinoha.

Archylou and George Dickie made their home in Woodson.