Thursday night’s game brought the nation its first televised college football game since the attack on Sept. 11 and honored a former Mississippi State University student who was killed at the Pentagon. Jerry Dickerson Jr. died Tuesday Sept. 11 while working in his office in the Pentagon. A Mississippi native and Bulldog at heart, according to his father, Dickerson was doing what he loved most¥working.
“He was always working,” Jerry Dickerson Sr. said. “No matter how busy he got, he always kept his commitments. He worked all through college, paying for school, and when he was working for the Army, he was always traveling around, learning new ways to better himself and his career.”
Just before the half-time show at Thursday’s football game against South Carolina, Dickerson Sr. was escorted onto the field by MSU President Malcolm Portera and Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck. Tuck, an MSU alumna, presented Dickerson with a certificate and announced the new memorial scholarship to be named for his son.
“We’re waiting to receive all of the details concerning the scholarship from the president’s office,” Trish Hughes, assistant director of the MSU foundation, said.
“As the office of the Army ROTC understands, the scholarship is a university scholarship, not an ROTC scholarship,” John Rogowski, military personnel technician, said.
“The Jerry Dickerson Jr. Memorial Scholarship will be an endowed scholarship, which means it will be a permanent scholarship,” Joe Farris, university relations, said. “The exact details of the scholarship are expected to be worked out sometime this week.”
“I’ve always been proud of my son,” Dickerson Sr. said. “It’s a great feeling knowing hard-working students like my son will have this scholarship to help him or her with school.”
“We’ve been talking about the scholarship ever since we found out,” David Dantzler, Dickerson Jr.’s brother-in-law, said. “Jerry worked harder than anyone I’ve ever known. If he knew some good was coming of all this in a way that is helping students, he would be so pleased.”
Dickerson Jr. was an economics major and graduated from MSU in May of 1983 along with his wife, Paige (Dantzler) Dickerson. Wanting to continue his education, Dickerson Jr. went to Texas A & M in College Station, Texas, to gain a master’s in arts degree in industrial engineering. Three years ago, Dickerson Jr., was assigned to his post in the Army at the Pentagon. There he worked in logistics and planning.
“We were watching everything on TV, like everyone else, when his wife called to tell us Jerry (his son) was missing,” Dickerson Sr. said. “General Kevin Byrnes, his boss, called Paige (Dickerson Jr.’s wife) to tell her that he and two others were missing from the office.”
Dickerson Sr. said his son was the “type of person who always made the most of life. He was an overachiever in every definition of the word.”
“He loved MSU,” Dantzler said. “He and Paige and the kids always made a yearly pilgrimage back to State, except for the years when they were stationed overseas. His heart has always been dear for his alma mater.”
Dickerson Sr. said he was anxious to learn more about the scholarship.
“It’s brought a lot of comfort,” Dantzler said. “MSU has been so supportive, especially with this new scholarship.”
Dickerson Jr., a lieuteunant colonel, was 41. In a tragic irony, Dickerson Jr.’s childhood best friend, Joe Ferguson, was one of the 62 passengers on the American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon.
“He lived and died doing what he loved best, and he probably wouldn’t change a thing,” Dickerson Sr. said.