Quotes:Dick, Frederick J.

Zirkoff, Boris

Dick, Frederick J. (1856-1927). Civil engineer by profession, a member of the Institute of Civil Engineers, and for some years Head of the Harbors and Lighthouse Board for Ireland, and Inspector of Harbors. Joined the Theosophical Society in Dublin in 1888, and soon became a personal pupil of H. P. Blavatsky. While in Ireland, he was Secretary of the Dublin Lodge of the T.S. and editor of The Irish Theosophist. He was greatly interested in the Gaelic Movement, the aim of which was to revive the spirit and knowledge of Irish antiquity. This spiritual effort was started in the Dublin Lodge and involved such men as W. B. Yeats, Charles Johnston, John Eglinton, Charles Weeks, George W. Russell (AE), Robert E. Coates and others.

Professor Dick came to the Theosophical Headquarters at Point Loma, California, in 1905, and soon became one of its outstanding workers. He was a mathematical astronomer of unusual qualifications, and a capable commentator on the subject of the Mayan calendar and chronology. For many years he wrote important essays for The Theosophical Path published at Point Loma, and also became an authority on meteorology and earthquakes. On mystical and philosophical subjects, he was a lucid and profound writer.

572 For many years he was engaged in editorial work connected with new editions of both Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine. The Third and Revised Point Loma edition (1919) of Isis Unveiled, and the Third Point Loma edition (1925) of The Secret Doctrine, embody a great many corrections of quoted material and references which lacked accuracy in the original editions of these works; they were laboriously checked by Prof. Dick’s untiring efforts.

Mention should also be made of Prof. Dick’s important Essays published as Papers of The School of Antiquity at Point Loma, and which bear the titles of: Notes on Peruvian Antiquities; Ancient Astronomy in Egypt, and its Significance; Neglected Fundamentals of Geometry; Maya Chronology (I and II).

Prof. Dick was twice married. His first wife was Annie P. Dick, a woman of culture and attainment and a fine writer. She passed away in 1904. Ten years later, Prof. Dick married Miss Fanny Coryn, sister of Dr. Herbert A. W. Coryn, another personal pupil of H.P.B. and a resident of Point Loma at the time.

Prof. Dick was a man of great nobility of character, a dedicated student of the Esoteric Philosophy, a tireless worker in the Cause, and an example of a true Theosophist.

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 11, pp. 571-572