Roll Call Tribute

Dixon W. "Dick" Coulbourn 

January 1, 1936 - March 29, 2024

Dixon Wall Coulbourn died on Good Friday, joining his dear wife Gail, who died in 2017.

Dixon was a very imaginative inventor, scientist, and engineer. He was proud to tell you he was the first child to be born in Texas in the state’s centennial year, 1936. He grew up in Port Arthur with his older brother, Sam Coulbourn, currently living in Maine, and his younger sister, Martha Coulbourn Flores, who preceded him in death.

Dixon was in the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M University, where he studied electrical engineering. After graduating in 1958, he married his sweetheart, Gail Connell, and they moved to New Jersey so he could serve in the U.S. Army Signal Research Laboratories. It was there that his team helped prove Einstein’s Special Relativity Theory. Upon the completion of his service, he returned to Texas, and spent a career as a scientist at Applied Research Lab at The University of Texas. He loved his work, and was credited with several patents for inventions.

Soon after their return to Texas, Dixon and Gail raised their family, Dixon (deceased 2005), Travis, and Daniel. Dixon coached soccer teams, and took the family on camping trips. When not parenting, or doing the work he loved, Dixon loved running marathons, from one up Pike’s Peak, to the Boston Marathon. Even decades after his last marathon, and after a year of medical problems caused by his brain shunt getting infected, which meant he hadn’t walked in months, he approached his physical therapy with the intensity of marathon training. He walked again, and even began a routine of climbing the stairs at Mount Bonnell. Throughout, Dixon and Gail engaged in many church activities and served in prison ministry. They always opened their home to people in need, and cared for his father in their home in his declining months.

Dixon is survived by four grandchildren, Calvin in graduate school at McGill, Maggie graduating high school this year and going to Goucher College in the fall, Marley, a choir freshman at McCallum, and Caroline enjoying theater tech at Lamar middle school. Dixon loved coming to all of their performances, always taking pictures and videos.

In 2017, Dixon had a seizure while driving, and hit a telephone pole. He had to have a a plate put in his neck, he was in ICU for weeks, and he had to relearn how to eat. While he was in the hospital, his wife of almost 60 years, died of Alzheimer’s. Even in this, his darkest hour, when many thought he could just give up, somehow his joy for life helped him through. He moved into Southern Hospitality, where Gail had been, and continued his studies and exercises. In no time, he had new friends, and expanded his circle to include joining a band as their harmonica player, joining them weekly to play in Ramsey Park. He also loved playing harmonica for the dancers at the Hancock Center.

As his brother Sam put it so perfectly, “I expect he’s already entertaining the other souls in heaven with his collection of harmonicas. If another soul asks him if he can recite Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, or the value of Pi to the nth, at least they’ll have the time to listen. Gig ‘em.

A funeral service for Dixon will be held Thursday, April 4, 2024, from 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM at Cook-Walden Funeral Home, 6100 North Lamar, Austin, TX 78752.