Hal Joseph Dick

Hal Joseph Dick, a long-time Verde Valley resident who spent his life weaving business ventures like flower shops and real estate with political and social work, died on April 18 at Valley View Care hospice near Old Town. He was 77 and lived near Verde Village Unit One outside Cottonwood. The son of Joseph Bailey Dick, a long-time barber in Old Town Cottonwood and Helen Dick, a managing editor for the Verde Independent, Joe Dick, as his friends and family called him, was born in Phoenix on Sept. 9, 1939. He moved to Cottonwood near the end of World War II and grew up in a house on Main Street that is now Abbie\u0027s Kitchen, a bistro that to this day retains the old living room\u0027s vintage glass windows in its dining room. He was part of the last graduating class of Cottonwood High School in 1958 and graduated from Arizona State University with a bachelor\u0027s degree in 1966. After working after graduation in Phoenix as a juvenile probation officer for Maricopa County and later for organizations such as the American Heart Association and the Phoenix Urban League, he returned to the Verde Valley in 1970 with his then-wife, Janice Nichols, to open the Sedona Floral and Nursery and Landscapes by Joe Dick. He eventually exited the flower and nursery business in the 1980s, leasing the Sedona Floral building but continued as a landscaper well into the 1990s. A burly man about town known as a raconteur and spotted in a trademark series of old trucks and his beloved sepia brown 1971 911T Porsche, he was active in Sedona Democrats and ASU alumni activities. Known for a somewhat forced grouchiness as well as his humor, among his last words to his family were, "I love you all," followed by "Now go to bed." He was buried Valley View Cemetery in Clarkdale, next to his parents, in a private ceremony on April 21. He is survived by a sister, Marion Elliott of Prescott, ex-wife, Janice Nichols and a son, Jason Dick. An online guestbook is available to sign at www.westcottfuneralhome.com