In early April of 2005, Timothy Dickel stood in St. Peter’s Square and took a picture of four nuns with instructions to get the late Pope John Paul II’s bedroom in the background.
Although he followed their wishes, he did not need further instruction. He had been familiar with cameras since an early age.
“When I was a kid, my parents bought me, it was called a brownie,” said Dickel, one of two recipients of the 2015 Saint Ignatius Award. “It was a little plastic box that used film and took photographs. I grew up and got better and better cameras.”
Dickel grew up in Portland, Oregon as an only child. His father was a psychiatrist, and his mother was a nurse. He went away to college in Washington naturally wishing to become a physician one day.
One of his childhood heroes was Albert Schweitzer, a medical missionary in Africa and the winner of he Nobel Peace Prize in 1952.
“I remember reading about him and thinking how it was neat the way he served under-served people,” Dickel said.
Although Dickel never became a physician, he received his bachelor’s in psychology, his master’s in counseling and a doctorate in counseling education. He has dedicated much of his life to serving under-privileged people, much like his childhood hero and his adult hero, Mother Teresa.
“I think I’m caring,” he said. “I love people. I want what is best for them.”
Wanting what is best for others has led him to serve on the Domestic Violence Coordinating Council, the Omaha Archdiocese Review Board and Committee on Sex Abuse, and the Nebraska Unicameral Task Force on Children Crisis, to name just a few. These commitments, along with his dedication to educating both undergraduates and graduates at Creighton, earned him the St. Ignatius award Feb. 3.
“Where there is pain, especially unjust pain, Tim serves hurting people,” the Ignation award citation said.
Dickel has been actively involved in Creighton since arriving in 1976. He noticed that a few faculty members were meeting for mass every once in a while and, since his wife was Catholic, he thought it would be nice if they both met with the faculty at mass too. She could participate and he could be a spectator.
There he met the Rev. Donald Doll, S.J., who would become influential in his decision to convert to Catholicism.
“I converted after I came to Creighton to Catholicism,” Dickel said. “After Don Doll went through labor and delivery with my wife and I of our second child.”
Dickel asked Doll to photograph the birth of his second child, as Dickel was not able to capture pictures during the birth of their first-born.
Doll described the experience as cute. His favorite picture shows Dickel supporting the newborn as he receives his first meal.
“He is such a good dad, and now grandfather,” Doll said of Dickel.
After having two kids and a positive experience with people like Doll, Dickel decided that he would convert. Doll performed the confirmation.
Along with Dickel’s involvement at Creighton and in the Omaha community, he loves to travel and explore new places.
“I want to go to North Dakota this summer because I haven’t been to North Dakota or Alaska of the 50 states,” he said.
He has also been to Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Spain, Italy and Switzerland, among other places.
His favorite place is a little town called San Sebastián in Spain.
“It’s on a circular bay; it’s got a promenade around it. The people were friendly, [and] it was very tranquil,” he said. “I’ve been to Rome; Rome was intriguing, but cluttered. Paris, cluttered. Madrid, cluttered. Barcelona, sort of cluttered. I like to get out of the way.”
But he loves meeting people.
“Part of traveling in Europe is meeting interesting people,” he said.
The four nuns in the photograph he took in St. Peter’s Square were interesting people. His face lit up as he told their story.
The sisters were walking through St. Peter’s Square the day after Pope John Paul II had passed away. They were sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, the community that had educated John Paul II in grade school. John Paul II was the eldest nun’s theology teacher in graduate school.
While they were walking through the square, a priest called out to them and asked if they were sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth. They confirmed that they were, and the priest led them up to the pope’s apartment where John Paul II himself was laid out.
Dickel had taken many photos before, but this one had a magical moment behind it.
Professor of Education Timothy Dickel, Ph.D. is one recipient of the 2015 Saint Ignatius Award.