Dale Dykins, b. 1918, was a scholarship student at the College of Music of Cincinnati from 1937 to 1941, where he earned a Bachelor of Music Degree with a Diploma in Piano and a Certificate in Organ. He spent the next four years in military service and as a bombardier in the 8th Air Force was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross, an Air Medal with four oak leaf clusters, and ETO ribbon with three battle stars and a pre-Pearl Harbor ribbon.

In 1946 Dykins returned to the College of Music for four more years of study through the generosity of the GI Bill of Rights. During this second period of study, he won the Springer Gold Medal in piano and the Martin G. Dumlar Prize in composition as well earning a Master of Music Degree in Composition and a Post Graduate Degree in Piano.

From 1950 to 1983 Dykins taught piano, music theory and composition at the University of Northern Colorado. During his last 15 years as a professor of music, he was Chairman of the Department of Theory and Composition. On a sabbatical leave in 1955 and 1956, he was a composition student of Vittoria Gianinni at Juilliard. Upon his retirement in 1983, his colleagues and students founded a scholarship which is still being awarded annually to promising students in musical composition.