Edward Augustus Dickson was born in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, on August 29, 1879.

[1][2] Back in California, he worked as a journalist for the Sacramento Record-Union, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Los Angeles Express.

[3][4] In 1912, at the age of thirty-three, he was appointed to the Board of Regents of the Los Angeles State Normal School, the precursor to UCLA.

[1][2] Together, they decided to establish the Southern Branch in Westwood, Los Angeles, which eventually became the new campus of UCLA.

[3] He died at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles on February 22, 1956, at the age of seventy-six, and was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park.