IVAN DIXONIvan DixonPeace activist, anti-nuclear campaigner and pioneering computer programmer.Born: Dublin, 11th June 1936Died: Broadclyst, 10th June 2010Before the war Ivan Dixon’s mother left her husband, the Irish Attorney General and, took him to live in France with her lover. They were on the last Aer Lingus flight out as the Germans marched in. After schooling in Drogheda, they returned to rural France, where he attended agricultural college.He went back to Dublin to study natural sciences at Trinity College Dublin, producing a Masters thesis on radioactive contamination of the environment. This is where he met his wife Sheila and also began his life-long fascination with computers, which in those days took up entire floors of buildings.In 1969 he moved with his young family to take up a post in the Computer Unit at Exeter University. He helped university departments get the best out of computers, including creating a database for all the archaeological finds in the south west. He also wrote a version of Hamurabi, one of the first computer games.Outside of work he followed a Buddhist philosophy, something which gave him admirable calmness. From the Aldermaston marches of the 1950s to his work as press officer for Exeter CND, he spent six decades actively opposing nuclear weapons. A regular on marches and demonstrations he also frequently appeared in the letters pages of Express and Echo and the West Morning News over several decades, as well as occasional forays into the pages of New Scientist or the Guardian. His scientific background and wide reading meant he was always expert on the technical details of our latest weapons of mass destruction.In the late 1980s he also spent considerable time on the inquiry into a new nuclear reactor at Hinckley Point, including giving evidence on safety. Sadly he will not be taking part in the forthcoming rematch.Having been ill for several years he died one day short of his 74th birthday and is survived by his wife Sheila, son Richard and daughter Vanya.
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