Her playing days as a collegiate swimmer and basketball player may have been behind her, but Charlotte Buist Dickson ’37 rarely missed a College of Charleston game. Match after match, she could be counted on to cheer in the basketball stands, help out at the swim meets or stop by the Fall Field Festival, a track-and-field contest held on the beach of Sullivan’s Island back in the 1950s and 1960s. Often times, she and her husband, Bob, were also at tennis practices, lending a pointer or two to student-athletes or acting as outright coaches.
“She came to everything,” says Tony Meyer ’49, a longtime friend to the Dicksons who also served as the College’s athletics director, coach and counselor, among many other things. “In order to be married to her, Bob had to be at everything, too,” Meyer adds, “or else
he wouldn’t ever see his wife. She was always here.”
College athletics meant so much to the couple that they donated $25,000 in 1991 to endow a scholarship for tennis and basketball athletes. Tennis was the couple’s favorite sport, and they played almost daily in Charleston, with Bob and Charlotte each becoming city champion, and sometimes teaming up to form an intimidating mixed doubles team. Bob enjoyed tennis so much that he played up until a week before his death in 2007 at age 89. Charlotte had died years earlier, leaving behind a legacy of athletic achievement at the College and generations of grateful players who benefited from her cheering and expertise.
“She had a soft spot in her heart for athletes,” says Meyer.
As part of their estate, the Dicksons donated $3 million to the College for scholarships, with $1 million of that gift immediately available to the College as a bequest, and $2 million placed in a charitable remainder trust, where it generates income for a relative. Upon that recipient’s death, the gift will be transferred to the College.
“It’s a creative way to give,” says David Masich, the College’s director of gift planning. “It’s a way to give to the College while maintaining flexibility in your personal finances.”
There are a variety of ways alumni and their families can contribute to the College through planned giving without sacrificing financial flexibility. A gift to the College through one’s estate, Masich says, is a particularly powerful contribution, as it demonstrates a faith in the College no matter what students and professors might roam the campus. In the case of the Dicksons, Masich notes, they’ll never meet any of the scores of students they will help afford a College of Charleston education. That’s hardly reason for concern, however, because the Dicksons knew the students would be welcomed into a community they themselves helped shape, and one they were confident would stay great for years, decades and centuries to come.
“They believe in the institution itself,” says Masich.
For more information on planned giving, please contact David Masich at 843.953.1835 or masichd@cofc.edu.
