David Rutherford Dickson was born in Montreal on November 15, 1919, only son of D. W. Dickson from Glasgow, and Christina Smart Rutherford, from Edinburgh. A King Scout, David cycled through England and Scotland in his teens, staying at Youth Hostels, and visiting relatives. He studied accounting at McGill University in Montreal, and qualified in 1939 with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of the Province of Quebec and joined the firm of Price Waterhouse in Montreal. Throughout this time, David continued his interest in cycling. At a youth hostel in Northfield, Massachusetts, while bicycling in New England in 1939, he met Rosaleen Diana Leslie of Halifax, Nova Scotia, a university student on summer holiday, who later became his wife.

In February, 1941, at the age of 21, David enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force, qualified as an Air Observer (navigation, bombing and gunnery), taught Astro-Navigation with the Commonwealth Air Training Plan, and was posted as Navigator to the RAF Ferry Command, taking aircraft across the ocean for use in Britain.

On October 28, 1942, in Westmount, Quebec, he and Rosaleen were married. David was then posted to England where he completed a tour of operations with the RAF as a Navigator with 214 (FMS) Bomber Squadron, attaining the rank of Flight Lieutenant. After the war David obtained a Bachelor of Commerce degree at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario. After graduation, David worked four years as an income tax assessor with the Federal Government in Ottawa.

In 1953 he moved his family to Shawville, Quebec, establishted The Pontiac Printshop Ltd., and published the weekly newspaper, THE EQUITY (founded in 1883), now owned and operated by his eldest son, Ross. In 1982, he bought Custom Printers of Renfrew Ltd, in Renfrew, Ontario, now owned and operated by his youngest son, Andrew.

David Dickson served as chairman of the Pontiac Community Hospital, founded the Pontiac County Social Planning Council, chaired the Pontiac County Ground Observers Corps, built a 16 foot Petrel sailboat, raised horses, and always maintained an insatiable curiosity about the origins of humanity on this planet. During his sixties, he took on the task, with his wife, of editing "Avenging in the Shadows," a book published in England about the RAF squadron in which he had served, and then co-authored "The Dickson and Leslie Family Histories," the research for which required considerable travel in Nova Scotia and Scotland.

David never entirely retired from his work, maintaining the books for the various family businesses while, at the same time spending five winters sailing in Florida, and then skiing and bicycling around Ottawa, where he also organized and took an active part in community gardening. On his tombstone in Shawville is written "loved by all who knew him," and that is true.

Rosaleen Diana Leslie, born July 2, 1921, in the Halifax home of her grandfather, James Ward Moir, started school at the Halifax Ladies College. The family lived on a farm in the Annapolis Valley, then in Europe, and later moved to the United States during which time Rosaleen attended many schools, was intermittently taught by tutors and governesses, finished high school at Lincoln School of Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, obtained a B.A. Psychology from Guilford, a Quaker University in North Carolina. In the following year she volunteered at the Hillel Settlement House, on New York's west side, sold housewares at R.H. Macy's Department Store, New York, was a Psychiatric Aide at the Neuro Psychiatric Institute, Hartford, Connecticut, did public utilities research at the Edison Electric Institute, New York, was a Manhattan real estate agent, and married David Dickson in Montreal.

While David was overseas in the war, Rosaleen taught high school in New York, graded College Record Examinations, worked in the Maple Leaf Canteen and sold war bonds. After the war, while David was attending Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, she typed and edited theses for University professors and students. When they moved to Ottawa, David and Rosaleen published The Family Gazette, a weekly community newspaper. They moved to City View, now Nepean, where Rosaleen established a Home and School Association, organized youth activities, taught Sunday School, ran the United Church Junior Choir, chaired the Hospital Committee of the Ottawa Citizens Committee on Children, initiating the need for a Children's Hospital, and wrote features for the now defunct Ottawa Journal.

When they bought the weekly newspaper in Shawville, Rosaleen took on reporting, editing, and photographic responsibilities as well as mechanical and technical chores in the printshop. She wrote, edited and published books and brochures and assisted many others in producing their own works. Rosaleen also conducted TV interview shows in Pembroke and Ottawa, hosted the first live interview program to be aired on CJOH which continued weekly for twelve months, ran an open line radio show in Pembroke, contributed regularly to CBC Radio Noon, and reported Pontiac County news on Renfrew radio in English, and on Hull television in French.

In Shawville she operated a children's theatre group, founded the first community library in Pontiac County, organized a film circuit, was the first woman elected to Shawville Municipal Council, wrote and produced several series of children's television programs, was a founding member of both a French co-op TV station and a bilingual community radio station, organized the building of two apartment houses for senior citizens, and chaired the Shawville Housing Authority. Her community involvement covered a range of activities including aerial photography, teaching horses to square-dance, managing junior hockey, playing timpani in the town band and disc-jockeying her own all-Canadian music radio show.

Rosaleen wrote presentations to governments on behalf of local boards and organizations, accompanied the Pontiac County mayors to Quebec City to request bilingual services, was named Citizen of the Year in 1965 and honoured at the Pontiac County Appreciation Night in 1982. During all this time she also had babies, washed diapers, made clothes for the children, knitted sweaters, wrote editorials, baked bread, cooked meals, and drove the children many miles in the pursuit of their own various interests.

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After her husband died, Rosaleen Dickson moved into a condominium in downtown Ottawa. She wrote for THE HILL TIMES - newspaper of Parliament, was editor of the Ottawa Independent Writers' Newsletter, and maintained her memberships in the National Press Club and the Parliamentary Press Gallery, receiving invitations and enjoying access to activities of the House of Commons and Senate and all press conferences.

Rosaleen was a Director of the Ottawa-Carleton Alzheimers Society and of the Good Companions Center for Seniors, of which she is a past president. She taught computer use to seniors, sang in the Churchill Choir, played drums with the Good Companions "Sharps and Flats", was editor of the Good Companions News, and an active member of the United Senior Citizens of Ontario.

A perpetual student, Rosaleen succeeded in all the graduate courses necessary to achieve a Master Degree in Journalism at Carleton University, except for the thesis, which she intnded, eventally, to achieve using the Internet.. She was a Director of the National Capital Freenet in its pioneer stages, organized and ran a Seniors special interest group (SIG), was the information provider for three other SIGs, and maintained a number of web sites on the Internet. One of these, "Old Folks At Home on the World Wide Web", originally intended as the base for her MJ thesis, was an interactive site on the Flora Community Web. She co-authored three books on these topics, two about freenets, and a primer on hyper text markup language.

In the year 2000, Rosaleen was appointed to teach weekly newspaper production to senior and graduate students at Ryerson University in Toronto. In October she was found to have colon cancer and underwent an operation, followed by a remarkable recovery and returned to her teaching duties at Ryerson.

On Thursday, June 12, 2003, Rosaleen received her Masters of Journalism Degree at Carleton University. Her dissertation, "Not just another pencil: Computer-mediated communication from a senior's point of view" is on the Internet at http://www.flora.org/oldfolks/

This life is not a rehearsal; it is the main event.