Victor "Junior" Anthony Dixon

                                                  VICTOR ANTHONY DIXON

                                                                  Obituary

Victor Anthony Dixon was born on April 23, 1944 in Kingston, Jamaica WI to Rudolph Aloysius Dixon and Inez Loretta Dixon (nee Richards).  He was later followed by six siblings.  

1944 was the start of monumental change in Jamaica, with the establishment of the first House of Representatives elected directly by the people. Victor’s early childhood was spent with his mother’s family, initially living with his maternal grandparents on Prince Albert Street in the Brownstown neighborhood of Kingston. 

As a child, Victor loved to play sports, with cricket and soccer being his favorites.  Victor also had a sweet tooth.  His grandfather had a side venture selling ice cream and snow cones from a push cart on the weekends. On rainy days when his grandfather could not sell his wares, Victor, his siblings and friends would delight in eating ice cream and snow cones until their bellies were ready to burst! His grandfather, of course, would lament the financial loss.    

As a young man, Victor liked to “borrow” his father’s motorcycle and ride out to the country to attend parties with his friends.  These adventures sadly came to an end when Victor crashed the motorcycle and broke his collarbone.  

When Victor was 15, he was apprenticed to an electrician, where he earned the princely sum of 25 shillings (~$2.00) per week.  Victor was a quick study and soon began working on major electrification projects all over the island.  Victor’s first son, Charles, was born in Kingston in 1964.

In 1968, Victor had the opportunity to become one of the top electrical inspectors for what is now known as the Jamaican National Works Agency.  Around the same time, Victor’s brother Rudolph “Bunny”, urged him to apply for a visa to move to the United States, where Bunny had already emigrated. Victor faced one of the biggest decisions of his young life when, after multiple delays, he received his American visa one day after learning that he had received the inspector job. Victor moved to the United States in 1969.

Upon settling in New York, Victor found work as an electrician’s helper while he attended school to update his electrician’s licenses and certifications so that he could work in the United States.  In 1972, Victor married Lorna (nee Douglas) in Kingston, with whom he had two sons, Craig and Brandon. Victor moved to Montgomery County, Maryland in 1978, where he built a successful electrical contracting business over the next 30+ years.

Victor began playing tennis in his early 30’s and the sport quickly became his lifelong passion.  Like clockwork, you could find Victor and his tennis buddies at the tennis courts at Montgomery College in Rockville, MD beginning at 4pm during the week and no later than 1pm on Saturdays.  This crew, a mix of recent immigrants from the Caribbean, West Africa, South Asia and Far East Asia, turned these courts into their own “country club” and everyone knew to clear Courts 1 - 8 when they showed up.  When it was too cold to play outside, the group rented court time from the Aspen Hill Club in Aspen Hill, MD. Victor played tennis, watched tennis and subscribed to multiple tennis magazines.  In other words, he was obsessed!

A second sports obsession was Victor’s passion for America’s Team, the Dallas Cowboys.  You could always find him watching or listening to his Cowboys play, and often yelling at the quarterback to “release” the ball to avoid being sacked. The highlight of Victor’s fandom was when he traveled with his son Craig and some of Craig’s friends to Dallas in 2008 to watch the Cowboys beat the Giants during the Cowboys last home season at Texas Stadium.     

Victor had a tremendous love of music with a vast collection of records (and later, CDs) spanning most popular genres, although it’s fair to say that he eschewed most music created after the 1980s!  He had a special place in his heart for Merritone Music, the legendary Jamaican Sound System, and would travel as far as New York and Florida to a Merritone party where he would be reunited with family and friends.  

After retiring, Victor enjoyed reading, tennis, golf, good wine and spending time with his family.  

Victor passed away on Wednesday, December 11, 2024 at Florida Medical Center, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, after a brief illness.  He was preceded in death by his parents, Rudolph and Inez, and his sister Roxanne 

Victor is survived by his wife Lorna; sons Charles (Careda), Craig (Hilary) and Brandon; grandchildren Victor, Nigel, Morgan, Catherine “Coever” and Vivian; siblings Rudolph, Laurel “Polly”, Patrick, Angela and Elizabeth; and a large host of nieces, nephews and extended family.