Larkin, Dixon

Mailing Address: 1028 Hillside Dr., Provo, UT  84604-6317

Primary Phone: (801) 225-6445

Primary Email: 

Comments: Dixon 'Dix' F. Larkin was born in Ogden, Utah, on July 3, 1947.  I was named after his grandfather, Henry Aldous Dixon II, who served three terms as an U. S. Congressman from Utah, and for whom Dixon Middle School in Provo is named.  One of his ancestors was a bodyguard for Queen Victoria and after converting to the Church immigrated to Utah (Elijah Larkin).
         From 1967 until 1969, I served in the Brazil South Mission. 
         I graduated from Ogden High School, Weber State College and University of Utah.  I was accepted at George Washington University and Tulane medical school, but chose to attend the University of Utah, where I received I medical degree in 1974.
         I had not been home long when I met his future wife, Carol Lyn White, in a chemistry class at the University of Utah.  Carol and I were married in the Salt Lake Temple on August 10, 1970.  Carol had just completed her degree in Medical Technology.
         I first love has always been flying.  I wanted to be a pilot, but in those days you had to have perfect vision, not corrected vision, to fly in the Air Force or commercially, so instead I went into medical school.  Nevertheless, I took lessons and learned to fly.  One day I came home and told Carol that I had bought an airplane.  She said, 'We didn't even have furniture and he informed me that he bought an airplane!'  It was a twin engine Comanchee, in which I had one-third ownership.  While in law school I taught flying lessons as a certified flight and instrument instructor (commercial pilot with airplane, single and multiengine land, instrument, certified flight instructor airplane and certified flight instructor instrument airplane ratings).
         After earning his M.D., I continued to advance I medical training.  I fulfilled a surgical internship in 1975, a public health fellowship in 1976, and completed a radiation oncology residency from 1976 to 1979.
         I joined Radiology Associates in Appleton, Wisconsin, where I practiced medicine for two years.  Thereafter, I returned to school and earned I J.D. from Brigham Young University.  I was admitted to the Utah State Bar in 1984.
         I worked for Jones, Waldo, Holbroo and McDonough from 1984 to 1989.  While working for this firm I served on the Medical/Legal Committee of the Utah State Bar Association and the Board of Directors of the American Cancer Society in Utah.  In addition, I was involved with education of both doctors and lawyers, lecturing to medical continuing education groups and teaching on a part time faculty basis at the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University.  I practice with the firm included the medical and health care aspects of the law.
         From 1989 to 1990, I was Assistant Vice President and Legal Counsel for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Utah.  The next three years I served as Counsel for GTE Health Systems Incorporated before being appointed as Deputy Insurance Commissioner (Insurance Department - State of Utah) from 1993 until 1996.  In 1997, I was Acting Insurance Commissioner (Insurance Department - State of Utah).
         Other professional accomplishments include Associate Professor at Westminster College of Salt Lake and Adjunct Professor of Law at Brigham Young University.
         I have always been an active and faithful member of the church.  Just days before I was to take the state bar exam, I became very ill.  I could not even move.  I asked Alan Johnson for a priesthood blessing.  After the blessing I was able to complete the next three days of testing and achieved one of the highest scores.
         Carol and I have lived in the same house since May 1982, and are among the original members of the Sherwood Hills Ward.  I have served as Sunday School President and Ward Clerk.  I favorite work in the church is genealogy, which I continue to work at to this day.  I have many hundreds of family group sheets recorded on his computer.  I currently serve as an Assistant in the Sherwood Hills High Priest Group.
         Carol and I are the parents of children, Dave (Michele), Sarah (Rich Robbins), Jeff (Emily), Megan.  Both of Dave and Jeff are Eagle Scouts and have served full time missions.  David served in the West Virginia Charleston Mission and Jeffrey just returned from the Australia Sydney South Mission. 
         On March 8, 1997, I suffered a hemorrhagic stroke (Broca's Aphasia, Apraxia of Speech).  The stroke affected the speech centers of his brain, but not his normal reasoning processes.  I am able to understand what a person is saying and follow talks and lessons.  I note that it did affect I ability to understand oral numbers though, but that is not a serious hindrance.  The right side of I body was paralyzed by the stroke.  I said that I have had to learn to walk three times in his life: when I was a baby; at the age of three, when I broke both of I legs; and again at the age of forty-nine following the stroke.
         This challenge may have overcome a lesser man, but I has met this obstacle with the same resolve that I has demonstrated throughout I life.  With the support of I wife and children, I is able to contribute and live a meaningful life.