February 25, 2025

Dear Members of Our Campus Community,

I am deeply saddened to share the news that Distinguished Professor Emeritus Tommy Dickey passed away on January 25, with his family by his side.

A renowned oceanographer who made pioneering contributions to his field, Professor Dickey spent two decades as a faculty member in our Department of Geography. He was a wonderful colleague and deeply devoted to research, mentorship, and teaching, the latter of which was recognized with an Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award in 2015. 

Professor Dickey was one of the fathers of the renaissance of interdisciplinary oceanographic field research and modeling. At a time when most oceanographers had been following largely disciplinary research paths for several decades, his innovative research spanned and linked the subdisciplines of physical, optical, geological, chemical, and biological oceanography, and led to the development of new ocean technologies. He was also one of the leaders in the development of bio-optical oceanography, an area of keen interest to the U.S. Navy.

He was awarded the Secretary of the Navy / Chief of Naval Operations Chair in Ocean Science in 2018, and was a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union. He chaired numerous national and international committees concerning interdisciplinary oceanography, and led six major ocean research programs sponsored or co-sponsored by the Office of Naval Research.

In more recent years, he published research on COVID-19 screening by trained medical scent detection dogs, a testament to his wide range of interests and expertise.

Our hearts go out to Tommy’s sons, Todd and David, and to his entire family, and to his friends, colleagues, and former students around the world. We are forever grateful for Professor Dickey’s legacy and impact at UC Santa Barbara and beyond. In his honor and memory, our campus flag will be lowered on February 26.

I am honored to share the following tribute from Todd and David Dickey, in collaboration with our colleagues in the Department of Geography.

Tommy D. Dickey (1945 – 2025)

Tommy D. Dickey, oceanographer, technologist, innovator, teacher, mentor, sportsman and lover of dogs (esp. Great Pyrenees), passed away peacefully on 25 January after an extended illness, with both of his sons, Todd and David, at his side. Throughout his research career, Tommy pioneered the development, scientific application, and promotion of interdisciplinary ocean observing systems that have become the tools that all oceanographers today use to study and monitor the state of the ocean. Tommy’s research achievements have helped lead the revolution in ocean observing systems that we have today.  

Tommy was born October 31, 1945, in Winchester, Indiana, a small farm town. He was fortunate to receive scholarships that enabled him to study physics and mathematics at Ohio University, where in 1968 he graduated with honors. After graduation, he enlisted in the Coast Guard, where he taught electronics and human relations on Governors Island, New York. After serving his country, he entered Princeton University, studying geophysical turbulence with his advisor, Professor George Mellor. The laboratory experiments conducted as part of his dissertation provided some of the first quantitative data into decaying stratified turbulence. 

After the completion of his PhD, Tommy was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Miami, where he got to pursue his interests in going to sea and conducting field observations as well as helping to define his vision of interdisciplinary ocean research. Tommy was a professor of oceanography at the University of Southern California, followed by another 18 years at University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). At UCSB, Tommy showed his excellence as a classroom instructor. He co-wrote a popular oceanography textbook, Exploring the World Ocean, and was named Outstanding Professor by University of California Santa Barbara Residence Hall Association and Office of Residential Life in 2009. In 2015, he was awarded the Distinguished Teaching Award from the UCSB Academic Senate.

During his career as an oceanographer, Tommy participated in more than 130 research cruises throughout the global ocean. His group’s focus was on observing the ocean’s biological responses to physical oceanographic forcings (hurricanes, monsoons, equatorial planetary waves, etc.), as viewed by changes in the ocean’s optical properties. In recognition of his research accomplishments, Tommy was awarded the Secretary of the Navy / Chief of Naval Operations Chair in Ocean Science in 2018. He was also named a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 2006. In all, Tommy published over 185 papers, and served as an editor for six oceanographic journals.

After almost 40 years of university teaching and research, Tommy retired in October 2016. In his retirement, he focused on Great Pyrenees dogs. It began with his close friendship with Terri Strom, an expert breeder and handler of Great Pyrenees. Tommy and his Pyrs did over 3,000 therapy dog visits, visiting hospitals, schools, retirement communities and Special Olympics events. There was an academic twist to his love of dogs as well, and in his retirement he published two medical journal articles on the abilities of trained medical scent dogs to detect COVID-19 infections.

Tommy is survived by his two sons, Todd Dickey of Oak View, California, and David Dickey of Glendale, California; Todd’s partner, Claudia Boyd-Barrett; David’s wife, Arsine Khayoyan, and their children, son Von, 9, and daughter Emma, 8.

Sincerely,

Henry T. Yang
Chancellor