Dixon, Laurence Belmont, 1870-1953.

Electrical engineer, amateur photographer, and bookbinder, born 16 August 1870 in Chicago, Illinois.

Graduated from Boston Technical School with a degree in electrical engineering. A California resident beginning in 1909; died in Del Mar in 1953.

Biography

Laurence Belmont Dixon was born on August 16, 1870 in Chicago, Illinois. His father, Laban Beecher Dixon (1834-1912), was a prosperous architect and businessman. The family lived in various locations in the Chicago area, finally settling in 1877 in a home they built on the city's South Side.

Dixon graduated from Boston Technical School in 1893 with a degree in electrical engineering. In that year he visited the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. After traveling in the southwestern U.S., Dixon returned to Chicago in 1894 to work for the Western Electric Company. He began by assembling and testing dynamos in the shop, moved up to the engineering department as a designer, and finally took a position on the executive staff.

In 1905, at the age of thirty-five, Dixon took a trip to Japan with his father. Arriving shortly after the end of the Russo-Japanese War, their visit lasted from September 12 to November 14. Landing in Yokahama, they ranged from the northern end of Hoshu Island to the town of Kochi on the southern island of Shikoku. In between, they visited Nikko, Sendai, Matsushima, Ihao, Haruna, Miyanoshita, Toba, Tokyo, Nara, Kyoto, and Kotohera. They travelled by train, but also by ricksha, sedan chair and on foot. They stayed at local inns, visited geisha houses, and took in the surrounding sights-- temples, street scenes, landscapes, and people.

Dixon left Western Electric in 1909 and moved to Riverside, California, with his first wife, Margaret. There the Dixon's had two sons, Robert and Richard. Margaret Dixon died in 1926, and the family moved to Del Mar, California, in 1927. During World War II, Dixon organized a twenty-four hour aircraft warning system in Del Mar, and he lectured on the Japanese national character.

Besides Dixon's formal career in electrical engineering, he was also an accomplished photographer, jeweller, woodworker, and bookbinder. He died on July 20, 1953 in Del Mar, California.