Daniel Dickison
1983 – 2023
Clovis, California

LINK TO OBITUARY: https://www.myfarewelling.com/memorial/daniel-dickison#obituary

Daniel was a free spirit who lived life on his own terms, often facing great resistance along the way. He battled bipolar depression and showed incredible resilience and courage despite its debilitating force.

Even with his struggles, Daniel was kind, smart, talented and had a great sense of humor. He befriended many throughout the years. He judged no one and had friends from every walk of life. Though he mostly kept to himself in recent years, he never stopped expressing pride in his friend’s achievements and concern for their downfalls.

To some he may have seemed somewhat reserved, but he was a true performer at heart. This became especially evident during his time studying and performing improvisation with a theater group known as Unexpected Productions in Seattle, Washington. Daniel also had a deep love for music. He played the saxophone in school band. He taught himself to play guitar and could replicate songs within hours, putting his own spin on them. He played guitar for a local rock band in Clovis, California. Sharing the stage with fellow actors and musicians and receiving the audience’s excitement, laughter and applause brought him immense happiness. Unbeknownst to most, Daniel was also intrigued with classical music. He didn’t have a preferred genre—his taste spanned everything from Beethoven to Nirvana.

For several years, Daniel lived and worked in Seattle, taking on the demanding role of a cook in various restaurants. Despite the tough work, he was determined to stay in the city but eventually circumstances forced him to return to the valley in California. Clovis once again became his home, but Seattle was always calling him back.

Daniel enjoyed many hobbies, including card tricks, collecting old padlocks, tinkering with computers, reading books, teaching Scout (the family dog) new tricks and flying on a flight simulator video game. His fascination with planes and flying was evident from toddlerhood to adulthood. His elaborate childhood collection of Hot Wheels planes attests to that. The Top Gun movies were his favorite. The last movie he saw in theaters was the latest Top Gun, and he even took his mom along- a rare treat.

Daniel always had great compassion for people, deep love for nature and animals and seemed to constantly be searching for truth, knowledge and purpose. In his later life, he became somewhat agnostic. Unlike in his earlier years he no longer seemed to have trust in ‘religion’. Perhaps he felt abandoned by God. You could say he was more spiritual than religious. Over time, his progressive mental illness deeply impacted his thoughts and distorted his perceptions of faith and life. We can only hope and pray that God showed compassion for his struggles and granted him healing in heaven. May he finally have found the peace that eluded him here on earth.