Bernice Werner Dicks

Bernice Werner Dicks died on Tuesday November 26, 2024, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Bernice was born November 20, 1935, to Joseph and Anna Werner of Queens, New York. In a sign of academic tidings to come, in 1953 she graduated from Richmond Hill High School Summa Cum Laude. Bernice received her BA from Queens College and was invited to join the Phi Beta Kappa Society. In 1956, she married Robert Williams; their son, David, was born in 1957. This marriage ended in 1972. Bernice received her Master's (1964) and PhD in English from the City University of New York (1969). While her first choice of graduate study was George Eliot, Bernice was persuaded to study George Meredith, as he was perceived to be more respectable; besides, not much had been written about his self-education as a poet. Like Bernice, George Meredith also lived a very interesting life.

Bernice joined the faculty at Southwestern at Memphis College (now Rhodes College) in 1966 (as Lecturer; then Assistant Professor in 1969; later, Associate Professor) and resigned in 1984. During her tenure, she served as Chair of the Department of English, Director of the Freshman Program, and Director of the Writing Laboratory. She was a formidable, devoted, most encouraging teacher who inspired her students to achieve their best. It was at Rhodes that one of her undergrads, Sharon Dicks, introduced Bernice to her father, George Dicks, PhD, who was visiting on Parents' Weekend, from Plattsburgh, NY. Bernice and George married in 1983. Across the world, they shared a life of adventure.

Bernice spent two years in a combined faculty and recruiting staff position at the State University of New York in Plattsburgh. In 1987 Bernice and George moved to Asia, joining the faculty of the University of Maryland Asian Division. First in Korea, and then for three more years on Kadena, Okinawa, Bernice taught everything from the dreaded Freshman Composition to Victorian fiction and poetry. The course she most enjoyed creating and teaching overseas was Technical Writing, so she could help young military men and women further their careers in computing, manufacturing, and engineering fields. She took enormous delight in the spare beauty of clarity, the nimble precision of thought well expressed. Bernice had a wit as sharp as her ever-present blue pencil. Affectionately, friends at the Okinawa Writers' Guild nicknamed her the Godmother of Grammarians.

In 1991, the couple returned to the U.S, settling in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Bernice embarked on a new career as tax preparer for H&R Block; the dizzying complexities of corporate tax law challenged and intrigued her. She passed three increasingly difficult levels of expertise in business tax specialization, became certified in those fields, and was enrolled to practice before the IRS in 2002. A long-time member of St. Chad's Episcopal Church, Bernice served as a lector, an acolyte, on the Vestry, taught Sunday school, and wholeheartedly belonged to the Order of the Daughters of the King.

Bernice loved cats, Shakespeare, bad puns, Gilbert and Sullivan, the Kingston Trio, difficult crossword puzzles, and good scotch, but not necessarily in that order. She was a fierce Scrabble player, but timid at playing bridge; she cooked a worthy Yorkshire pudding in honor of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. She also studied theology, as her husband George did. She had a vast knowledge of mystery novels and stories. Bernice absorbed everything from true crime as written by Truman Capote, to all of Dorothy Sayers, including Lord Peter Wimsey, the intricate translations of Dante and Old French, and every word Tony Hillerman set down on the page. At her core, she was always a New Yorker, open, kind, and blunt.

Bernice leaves a son, David Williams and wife Joan, three stepdaughters, Rebecca Bauerschmidt and husband Gary, Sharon Updike, and Ivy Jones and husband Tam, 3 grandsons, Matthew Bauerschmidt and wife, Jesse Camp, Benjamin Updike, and Isaac Updike and a great-grandson Milo Bauerschmidt. She is also survived by a brother, Charles T. Werner. Bernice is preceded in death by her beloved husband of 31 years, George W. Dicks.

A service will be held at 1:00 p.m. on Friday, January 24, 2025, at St. Chad's Episcopal Church, with a reception to follow.