450th Commissioner: Katharine H. Dickenson

As an active community historic preservationist for Boca Raton, Mrs. Dickenson has served on many boards, including the Children’s Museum at Singing Pines, the Boca Raton Historical Society, where she served as chair, the Boca Raton Junior League, where she served as president, and The Mounts Botanical Garden.

In Vermont, where she has a summer residence, she has served on the boards of Dorset Theater Festival, the Manchester Music Festival, and Hildene, Robert Todd Lincoln’s summer home.

Other activities include the boards of the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Washington and the Board of the Edith Wharton House in Lenox, Massachusetts. Her current restoration project interest is the “Old Courthouse” project, the new history museum in West Palm Beach.

A life-long Floridian, Mrs. Dickenson was appointed to the Florida Historic Preservation Advisory Council for a seven-year term and served as chairman in 1988. She has been appointed to a number of terms to the Florida Arts Council, which advises the Secretary of State on matters pertaining to culture and the arts and recommends funding for cultural grants statewide. She has served on the Arts Council at the pleasure of Governor Bush (2003 – 2008) and Governor Crist (2009 – present), serving as Council Chair in 2007. She is the only Floridian to have served as both chairman of the Arts Council and chairman of the Historic Preservation Advisory Council (now the Florida Historical Commission). Mrs. Dickenson was appointed by three governors to the Palm Beach County Historic Preservation Board and served as chairman for eight years. From 1991 – 2000, Mrs. Dickenson served as a trustee for the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Washington, DC. She also served on the Board of Directors for Preservation Action from 1986 – 1995, a firm that lobbies all branches of the Federal Government on behalf of historic preservation.

Her many awards include the 2001 Boca Raton Historical Society Volunteer of the Year Award, the 1989 Florida Trust Distinguished Service Award, Palm Beach County’s Judge Knott Award in 1996, Boca Raton’s Myrtle Butts Fleming Award in 1995, and a 1994 Bonnet House award for significant contributions to The Preservation of South Florida Landmarks. Mrs. Dickenson was also nominated by the Junior League for the Woman Volunteer of the Year Award, and she was recently inducted into the publication Who’s Who in America.

Mrs. Dickenson graduated from the University of Miami with a master’s degree in education. She resides in Boca Raton with her husband David, an attorney. She has three sons practicing law in Palm Beach County, three daughters-in-law, and five grandchildren.

Congress established the St. Augustine 450th Commemoration Commission as part of the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009 and charged it with ensuring a suitable national observance of St. Augustine’s 450th anniversary by complementing the programs and activities of the State of Florida and the City of St. Augustine. The members were appointed by U. S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar after considering the recommendations of the Mayor of St. Augustine, the St. Augustine City Commission, and the Chancellor of the University System of Florida, the Governor of Florida, and the Florida delegation in Congress.