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ROBERT WESLEY DICK
Vol. 3, p. 1020-1021
Book has photo

Robert Wesley Dick, warden of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, is a
native son of Arkansas, and was born in Columbia County, June 8,
1865, a son of William J. and Minerva C. (SMITH) Dick. His father was
born and reared in South Carolina and came of sturdy Scotch-Irish
stock, and as a young man went to Louisiana, where he met and married
a daughter of one of the very oldest families of that state. He
settled there and lived for a short time in Columbia County,
Arkansas, when he removed to Grayson County, Texas, in 1870, and
settled on a farm.

Robert Wesley Dick was but five years of age when his parents
removed to Texas, and in that state he was reared on the farm, coming
from the domain of the Lone Star to Oklahoma as one of the many
Texans who in a generous and substantial way have contributed to the
development and progress of this commonwealth. Mr. Dick did not leave
the farm until he was sixteen years of age. It was on his father's
homestead that he learned the invaluable lessons of industry and
perseverance in his early life, lessons that have so greatly entered
into his career as elements of success. After attending schools at
Whitesboro, Texas, he secured a first grade certificate to teach and
commenced his work as an educator at the age of nineteen years. His
rapid rise in this profession may be seen when it is stated that when
he was but twenty-one years of age he was president of the Centennial
Literary and Commercial Academy, at Cannon, Texas, which was at that
time the largest school in the northern part of the state, and where
many young men and women who attained distinguished positions in
after life were his students. While the executive and directing head
of this institution, Mr. Dick also edited a journal published in
connection with the academy. He remained at the head of this school
for two years, and was then for one year president of the Pilgrim
College, of Collin County, Texas. In 1888 he became president of
Pottsboro College, and then, in 1889, came to the Indian Territory
and taught in the public schools at Ardmore, where he closed his
activities as an educator. As an instructor it is but fair to say
that Mr. Dick was one of the most popular, efficient and thorough
members of his calling during his day. He possessed the happy faculty
of being able to impart his knowledge to others, and as an executive
transferred to others, his associates and teachers, his own boundless
enthusiasm for his work. He had a warm place alike in the hearts of
teachers, fellow-educators, pupils and parents.

Mr. Dick was one of the "eight-niners" of Oklahoma City, to which
small community he went with a former pupil of Centennial Academy,
Bill Alexander, the two camping, on the night of April 22, 1889,
under an old cottonwood tree which stood at what is now the juncture
of California and Broadway streets. During the days of his school
work, Mr. Dick had given his leisure hours to the study of law, and
when a court was established at Ardmore he was admitted to the bar,
in 1890. He successfully practiced his profession there until 1902
when he was elected mayor of the city. For five consecutive times he
was the winner of the mayoralty election, and served in that capacity
until 1908, when he resigned to assume charge of the Oklahoma State
Penitentiary, as warden, to which office he was appointed by Governor
Haskell, and in which he has since served with great credit to
himself and to the lasting benefit of the state. He is successful
student of human mature, and is thus ably fitted for the position he
occupies.

When Mr. Dick resigned as mayor of Ardmore the Ardmorite, leading
newspaper of that city, said: "Mr. Dick has been mayor of Ardmorite
so long, has worked so faithfully for the city's interests, and has
done so much to put her in the path of progress, that his going from
us causes hearts among us to be sorrowful. During the time of his
administration as mayor, he has been regarded as a man of progress
and foresight. When he took the leadership of the town upon himself,
there was not much of the present Ardmore. To his work, together with
that of his coadjutors, we owe the fact that he was ever a park
reservation; to him we owe it that 1,350 acres of ground was
condemned for a water shed; the vast improvements of our streets show
that things undreamed of before were planed out by him and came to
perfection during his administration."

While he was mayor of Ardmore, many movements for the substantial
progress of the city were inaugurated among which might be emphasized
above all others the public schools. With an enviable recorded as a
mayor behind him, Mr. Dick became warden of the penitentiary not only
with experience in public service, but with mind and heart well
calculated to enable him to achieve success in a broader field of
usefulness. As warden of Oklahoma State Penitentiary, Robert W. Dick
has not only won for himself a nation wide reputation of efficiency
as a prison official, but has placed the institution over which he
has had charge among the best in the United States. He was the first
warden and has been the only one to hold the office in this state
institution. Under his administration its entire equipment buildings,
machinery, and all, has been inaugurated. Governor Cruce, in speaking
of Warden Dick, said: "I believe that it would be hard to find in
this or any other state a man who would make a more competent warden
than he has proven himself to be. The work done by him at the
penitentiary will stand as a monument to his genius in the building
and handling of large propositions." We quote from an article which
appeared in the Guthrie Lender: "He has done things that those versed
in criminology have pronounced impossible; first to bring him into
prominence, was the transfer of over 200 hardened convicts from the
Kansas State Prison to McAlester, a distance of 450 miles, without a
mishap. The precaution Warden Dick has taken to prevent escape shows
that he is not only looking after the welfare of the convicts, but
their safety as well."

No one can investigate Warden Dick's physical management of the
institution and withhold expressions of admiration for his ability,
and in addition thereto he has given evidence of exceptional capacity
in the handling of men, thereby raising the moral standard of the
convicts and preventing wholesale "jail deliveries." A splendid and
thorough student of human nature, he has, by unerring judgment,
placed hundreds of convicts on the trusty list, not on a list of
trusties who must be guarded but who are trusted to themselves. This
has given hope to many convicts, has developed in them a spirit of
self-respect, and brought to the surface latent merit lying within.
Punishment he makes subordinate to reform. No man holding the
position he does can hope to escape unkind criticism, and fault has
been frequently found of his methods, but all special committees of
the Legislature, as well as special committees of other natures, have
been ready to render the most favorable and complimentary reports of
the man and his work. Warden Dick has proved himself thoroughly
honest, and no objection has ever been urged against him on the
grounds of dishonesty or the lack of economy in the administration of
the affairs of the institution. If he has been criticized it has been
because of the fact that he has too many trusties; it is because his
critics have not had the same confidence in humanity that has always
regulated the actions of Warden Bob Dick. He does not wish for the
unfortunate a more bitter penalty than can be avoided; he would
rather turn a man out of prison with an inspiration to be useful as a
citizen, than with a desire to again commit crime. With the milk of
human kindness pulsating in his veins, he has sought the uplift of
those who are his wards, and to this end has inaugurated ways and
means for hygienically caring for the men, and has looked well to
developing in them all latent qualities of worthiness. Summarized, it
may be said that Warden Dick has well won his substantial reputation
as a humane and capable prison official, and has made the Oklahoma
State Penitentiary a model for other institutions of its kind in the
country.

Warden Dick is a stanch and undeviating democrat, and, while he has
not allowed politics to enter into the management of the institution
of which he is the head, has long been active in the councils of his
party. Fraternally he is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason
and a Noble of the Mystic Shrine, and also holds membership in the
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and in the Independent Order
of Odd Fellows.

In 1887 Robert W. Dick, was happily united in marriage with a lady
of many sterling qualities of mind and heart, Miss Minnie
BLESSINGAME, who has graced his home with dignity and culture and has
been an inspiration to him in the carrying on of his work. They are
the parents of two accomplished daughters: Irene, who is the wife of
H. L. BERRY, of McAlester, Oklahoma; and Miss Jerline, who is
attending college.

Typed for OKGenWeb by Carolyn Smith Burns, July 29, 1999.