Captain Mike Dixon at a fire prevention week program at Kenmore Elementary around 1975
OCEAN CITY, June 24, 2022 – At the 130th annual convention of the Maryland State Firemen’s Association (MSFA), I was pleased to be inducted into the MSFA Hall of Fame. This prestigious award recognizes distinguished contributions to the Maryland Fire Service at the state level.
I joined the ranks of the volunteer fire service in 1969. Over the decades, I served as a firefighter, lieutenant, captain, and chief of the EMS Division. Also active in county, state, and national fire service organizations, I edited the Volunteer Trumpet, the statewide newsletter of the MSFA, for nine years.
MSFA Past President John Denver and the Singerly Fire Company nominated me for the special honor. Before the annual convention, a review committee selects a small number of candidates as new members.
I was honored and humbled that my colleagues in the Maryland Fire Service nominated me for this prestigious honor. And during the induction ceremony in Ocean City, as I joined the distinguished ranks of Maryland leaders in the hall of fame, the ceremony evoked many memories from over half a century as a first responder in Maryland.
Elkton Firefighter Mike Dixon doing a fire prevention program at Immaculate Conception School around 1974
Captain Mike Dixon at an elementary school for Fire Prevention Week 1976 demonstration. (Source: Cecil Whig)
ELKTON, Sept. 18, 2021 – At the Singerly Fire Company’s 129th annual banquet, I was pleased to receive a prestigious honor, induction into the Harford-Cecil Volunteer Firemen’s Association Firefighter Hall of Fame and to also be recognized for 50-years-of service as a firefighter.
I joined Elkton’s fire department in 1969 and, over the decades, have served as a firefighter, fire line officer, chief of the EMS Division, and in many administrative leadership positions. In addition, I have been active in state and national fire service organizations.
It was an enjoyable evening as several members of the department marked a milestone of a half-century of service and as I joined a distinguished group of colleagues in the firefighter’s Hall of Fame for Harford and Cecil counties. At the delayed banquet (2020 was canceled), local, state, and county officials were on hand to present citations from Governor Larry Hogan, the Maryland General Assembly, the Cecil County Council, and the Town of Elkton.
Mike Dixon (left) receives congratulations for Singerly President Horah as other members and officers look on. Sept. 18, 2021
In 1978, Cecil County’s first group of Advanced Life Support Providers receive congratulations upon being licensed by the State Board of Medical Examiners from their instructor Frank Muller (Source: Cecil Whig Photo, 1978).
Wilmington University recently acknowledged Mike Dixon’s work as a scholar-practitioner with a promotion to Adjunct Assistant Professor. Promotion in academic rank takes into consideration the quality of classroom engagement and scholarly contributions to the professor’s discipline. He teaches history and humanities courses in the University’s College of Arts and Sciences.
Mike focuses on social history and community studies in his public practice. For over four decades, he has worked to encourage public interest and participation in the preservation of the past while creating understanding between earlier eras and the present. He has appeared on the TodayShow, Maryland Public Television, the BBC, National Geographic Chanel, and National Public Radio shows.
Professor Mike Dixon was promoted to Adjunct Assistant Professor at Wilmington University. Here he is at the old State House in Dover in the summer of 2019
At the Harbor of Grace Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) meeting in Havre de Grace on May 11, 2019, I was pleased to be the recipient of the DAR Historic Preservation Recognition Award. I had been invited to speak about the history of the Mason-Dixon Line, and following the presentation, Chapter Regent Barbara J. Park presented the award to me.
The DAR “Historic Preservation Recognition Award recognizes and honors an individual or group that has done recent remarkable volunteer work at the community level. The award recognizes achievements in all areas of historic preservation.”
Thank you the members and officers for this special recognition. It was a pleasant surprise.
PRESERVATION AWARD NOMINATION
Candidate for DAR Historic Preservation Recognition Award Reasons for Application
This past year, I personally sat for his college presentation,”Susquehanna Tales,”which chronicled the geography and settling of the lower Susquehanna River Valley in Maryland and the building of the Conowingo Hydroelectric Dam. This short course involved 2 hours of classroom lecture followed by two hours touring the visitor sites, both above and below the dam. Since historians are constantly on the lookout for items of historic value that have been discarded or hidden away, Mike was able to rescue 8 large photograph albums of hundreds of photos taken before, during, and after the building of the dam. Viewing these photos made Mike’s lecture and tour come alive, showing the work and sacrifices made towards the completion of the dam in 1928.
With the internet, the explosion of data has become available for Mike to use for researching genealogy to help eager students and adults to connect with their family trees. We are lucky that the internet has become a household tool during Mike’s lifetime, making him much more productive.
For further testimony on the worthiness of Mike for our award, I direct you to the letters of support for Mike by Paula Newton, President of The Historical Society of Cecil County, and Dot Schwemmer, a member of our DAR Chapter, who volunteers at the Cecil Society. They both have many decades of personal experience with Mike. Their letters explain why Mike is truly worthy of DAR Historic Preservation Recognition. Also attached are references about Mike from newspapers, newsletters, the internet, and college catalogs; some data from Mike’s own website is included, which lists his lectures available at this time. In summary, Mike Dixon, who has dedicated his life to Historic preservation, is a local treasure and deserves our recognition.
Mike Dixon doing some work at Fort McHenry in the summer of 2017
