Hal Dixon, Advertising Executive, `Taught US Never To Compromise'

Hal Dixon, former chairman and president of Cole & Weber, for decades one of the Northwest's largest advertising agencies, died Monday (Aug. 19) of injuries suffered in a polo accident in Victoria, B.C. He was 67.

Working closely with longtime friend and business associate Hal Newsom, "the two Hals" as they were known in the advertising community, shaped Seattle-based Cole & Weber into the region's largest agency during the '70s and '80s, winning such premier accounts as Boeing and Weyerhaeuser. Mr. Dixon was with Cole & Weber from 1960 until his retirement in 1987.

"His business side was extremely competitive," said Newsom. "But wrapped inside him there was the soul of an artist. He loved words and ideas, and he had a heart the size of a lion."

Newsom, who described Mr. Dixon as "not only my working partner, but one of my best friends for 30 years," said Mr. Dixon considered his two most important contributions to be helping the agency grow and guiding the careers of young people.

John Brown, founder of Brown & Hadley, a Seattle advertising agency, was one of the young people who got his first big break from Mr. Dixon.

The two Hals gave Brown his first advertising job, and he later became the agency's creative director.

"Hal Dixon was one of the most influential people in my life. Professionally, he was my mentor and teacher, my highest inspiration and my toughest critic," Brown said.

Denny Hinton, partner in Hinton & Steel advertising, said: "Hal taught us by example never to compromise. He leaves an immeasurable legacy to the individuals he touched."

Born in New York in 1924, Mr. Dixon attended the University of North Carolina and later became a Navy fighter pilot in World War II.

He began his advertising career in San Diego in 1948. In the mid-1950s he moved to Tacoma to write speeches and articles for the trade group now called the American Plywood Association.

Mr. Dixon enjoyed writing so much that he continued to write the copy for some of Cole & Weber's most visible campaigns - such as the 1970s campaign for World Airways featuring entertainer George Burns - even after Mr. Dixon became chairman.

His daughter Susie Dixon, who was playing in the match Monday when her father fell said, "My father always told us if he had to go, he wanted to be playing polo on a good horse, with good people, and be winning. The score was 6 to 0 in his favor when the accident occurred."

Surviving him are his wife, Mary Alice, four daughters and five grandchildren.

The family suggests remembrances be made to the Humane Society and the American Cancer Society. There will be no service, but friends and business associates are invited to a memorial gathering from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at 26621 Eighth Ave. E., Spanaway.