Michael D. Dickens ’68

Mike died Feb. 18, 2025, in Charlottesville, Va., of metastatic uveal melanoma.

He came to us from Henry Grady High School in Atlanta, where he was active in student council and ROTC. At Princeton, he majored in biology and ate at Cloister Inn. He was active in the Undergraduate Schools Committee, the Trenton Tutorial Project, and the Wesley Foundation. He roomed with Dietz, Whitesides, Freeman, Cochran, Murphy, and Childs and lived in McCosh Infirmary his junior and senior years.

After graduation, Mike earned a medical degree from Columbia medical school. He did a postdoctoral residency at the University of Virginia specializing in pediatrics before being commissioned into the Navy Medical Corps, where he served two years at Guantánamo Bay before mustering out as a lieutenant commander.

In private life, Mike joined a single-specialty pediatric practice where he worked for 35 years before retiring in 2013. During that period, he devoted volunteer hours to 16 Haiti medical missions, as well as serving his church and his state in multiple capacities. He was also a vital member of the Princeton community, doing Alumni Schools Committee work before dedicating innumerable hours to our class by serving as vice chair and then chair of the class board. In his spare time, he was an avid golfer and historian, having authored two books on James Madison 1771.

The class extends its deepest sympathies to Mike’s widow, Melissa; his daughters Allison and Meredith; and to his extended family and friends.