Philip Ray Dixon

Philip Ray Dixon
Image source: Phil Dixon

As a student, an alumnus, and attorney, Philip (Phil) Ray Dixon distinguished himself as one of ECU’s preeminent fold. A native of Wake Forest, N.C., Dixon rose from poverty and strained family circumstances first to graduate from William G. Enloe High School in Raleigh, and then, at East Carolina, to complete, with honors, a bachelor’s degree in business administration. An exceptionally active student at ECU, Dixon was a member of several Greek honorary societies including Beta Gamma Sigma (business honor society), Phi Beta Lambda (society for Future Business Leaders society), Phi Sigma Pi (national honor fraternity), and Omicron Delta Epsilon, (economics honor society). Dixon was also active in student organizations such as the French Club, the Young Republicans Club, the Law Society, the Baptist Student Union, and the Society for the Advancement of Management.

In student government, Dixon served on the Men’s Residence Council, the Review Board, the Men’s Judiciary Council, the Freshman Orientation Committee, the Special Events Committee, Homecoming Committee, the Traffic Committee, the Red Tape Committee, the Elections Committee, and the Spirit Committee. Dixon chaired the State Student Legislature, was on the Executive Council of the ECU Student Government Association, and served as vice president of the SGA his senior year. A regular on the ECU Dean’s List and Honor Roll, Dixon was named to the Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges. Although involved in an altercation his senior year, Dixon was acquitted, in a court trial, of any wrongdoing .

After graduating in 1971, Dixon entered the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Law, completing his Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree there in 1974. He subsequently worked at the UNC-Chapel Hill Institute of Government, the N.C. Attorney General’s Office, the State Bureau of Investigation, and as a law clerk and research assistant to Naomi E. Morris (1921-1986), a judge on the North Carolina Court of Appeals. After beginning a practice in Greenville, Dixon served as attorney for the School Board of the Greenville City and Pitt County Schools for thirty years, and for the Washington County Schools for eighteen years. Dixon also did legal work for twenty-two other school systems in North Carolina.

As an active attorney, he represented Martin Community College, Pitt Community College, the College of the Albemarle, Carteret Community College, Bladen Community College, Halifax Community College, and the N.C. Association of Community College Trustees. He is past chair of the N.C. Council of School Attorneys, and past chair of the Education Law Section of the N.C. Bar Association. Dixon previously served as a local due process hearing officer, and a state review hearing officer for the N.C. Department of Public Instruction in cases involving children with disabilities.

Dixon now serves as a hearing officer for the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services in cases involving children with disabilities from birth through three years of age. He is also one of eight hearing officers designated by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction to hear appeals involving the denial of tenure or a dismissal of a tenured public school teacher.

Dixon has previously served as chair of the board of trustees of East Carolina University and Pitt Community College. As an attorney, he represents numerous public bodies, including Greenville Utilities Commission, the Town of Ayden, the Pitt County and Currituck County ABC Boards, and the Roanoke Island Historical Association. He represents Carolina Donor Services (formerly Carolina Organ Procurement Agency), which works with Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill, Wake Forest, and ECU medical schools to provide organ and transplant services to seventy-nine N.C. counties. Dixon has served as general counsel to the Carolina East Behavioral Health Care Consortium. Dixon has also been appointed to the UNC Board of Governors, the ECU Board of Visitors, and Vidant Medical Center Board of Trustees.

For his prodigious community service work, Dixon has received the I. Beverly Lake Public Service Award, the Citizen Lawyer Award by the North Carolina Bar Association, Citizen of the Year and Volunteer of the Year by the Greenville-Pitt County Chamber of Commerce, Outstanding Alumnus Award and Distinguished Service Awards by the ECU Alumni Association. As an attorney and civic leader, Dixon’s outstanding service to East Carolina and public education has been surpassed by few other than Thomas J. Jarvis and Robert Morgan in ECU’s history.

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Citation Information

Title: Philip Ray Dixon

Author: John A. Tucker, PhD

Date of Publication: 6/25/2019

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