Brents Dickinson III

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Brents & Billie August 17, 1958

Brents III was born in Glasgow, Kentucky on March 23, 1933, the first son of Brents Jr. and Gwendolyn Holman Dickinson. Brents graduated from Glasgow High School in 1951 in a class of about 28. He attended Centre College one year, transferred to Western Kentucky State College  in 1952, and graduated from Western with a degree in English and ROTC (Jan. 1956). He purchased his first car on credit, a 1951 DeSoto for $600, upon graduation, to take with him on his tour of duty with the US Army.

    Before leaving for the army, Brents III decided to drive his new (to him) car to Lexington to visit his brother Henry, who was in Law School. Henry borrowed the car to visit Emmy Lou in Bristol, Virginia. On his way back, he rolled the DeSoto over a mountain near Barbourville, Ky. He was not hurt but the car was totaled. Henry got $75 for the car, gave Brents $50 and kept $25 for handling the deal ... his first legal fee. Brents had to take the bus from Cave City to Fort Benning, Georgia foe basic training.

    Brents was in the military when the choices were 6 months active duty or  RA (regular army). Brents chose 6 months and was back in Glasgow by October 1956. His first job was with the New Farmers National Bank as a proof clerk. This lasted about 6 months, or until Buddy Pride asked him to go to Todd County to survey a road. So he left the bank and began his career as an engineer. He enrolled at UK engineering school in the fall of 1957, and graduated in the spring of 1961 with a state job and a pregnant wife. 

    This is where Billie Neal Howard (Beah) comes into the picture. Actually we need to back up a few years when Brents returned from the Army. On his way back home from a day at the bank, he stepped off the curb at Wayne and Green Street where Billy Reid Dickinson's Buick garage was located. Some girl with her hair all rolled up in curls just about ran over him (the prettiest little thing he had ever seen) ... she yelled in a very lady like manner, "why don't you watch where you are going Dickinson?". And the next thing you knew they were chasing each other and married two years later (August 17, 1958).

    Billie taught school at Athens Elementary School in Fayette County for three years. Brents & Billie lived at Athens in a small Gunnison house across the street from the school and owned by the Fayette county School Board while Brents attended the University of Kentucky 10 miles away. He commuted to school in  a 1951 Chevy Cope that Billie's uncle Sam Miller found for them for $50. This brings us back to 1961, the year Brents graduated from UK with a BSCE degree. Brents and Billie moved to Lexington on Irvin Road. Brents went to work with the State Parks Department and Billie became a mother. Elizabeth Brents was born on November 3, 1961 and Christopher Howard on February 11, 1964. While living on Irvin Road Billie earned her masters degree in Early Childhood Development and worked part time with the Cerebral Palsy School in Lexington. In 1962 Brents transferred to the Sanitary Engineering Division of the State Health Department. While with the Health Department Brents & Billie packed up their family in a small U-Hall and moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan to attend the University of Michigan to earn a MPH in Environmental Engineering (1965-66). After 9 years with the state, Brents joined the G. Reynolds Watkins engineering firm on December 1, 1970. In 1972 he became a Vice President and opened GRW's first branch office in Bowling Green. Later, when GRW purchased the Robert S. Miller engineering firm in Nashville, Brents managed that office until someone local could be found. Brents retired August 22, 1997