Born October 12, 1929 in Seattle, Washington to Charles Theodore and Mildred Rogers Dickemann. Dickemann’s father was a U.S. Navy civil engineer and his mother a successful commercial illustrator. The family travel often and lived in places like Hawaii, Samoa, Salt Lake City, and Brooklyn. In Brooklyn Dickemann attended high school at Packer Collegiate Institute, graduating in 1948. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from the University of Michigan in 1950, and a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley in 1958. After graduation, Dickemann spent a year in New Guinea doing fieldwork as part of a postdoctoral fellowship for the National Science Foundation.

In 1960, Dr. Dickemann earned a Junior College Teaching Credential from UC Berkeley, then went on to teach anthropology for four years at Merrit College (1960-1964). From 1964-1967 he worked as an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Kansas, before returning to one more year of teaching at Merrit College. While at the University of Kansas, Dr. Dickemann joined a project to research educational programs for the Cherokee population of Oklahoma as research assistant and associate director. The project is documented within this collection. Soon after the completion of the project he joined Sonoma State College as an Associate Professor of Anthropology in 1968.

Among the many academic service roles at Sonoma State include chairing the Anthropology Department from 1969-1971, member of the Affirmative Action Committee from 1971-1972 , and chair of the Academic Senate twice (1972, 1980). During his second tenure chairing the Academic Senate, he oversaw the removal of President Peter Diamandopoulos, a letter in this collection recounts Dickemann’s personal thoughts of that event.

Dr. Dickemann established himself as an well known evolutionary biologist, with some of his work focusing on human behavioral ecology. Examples of this work can be found in this collection in the form of working manuscripts and fieldwork notes.

An active member of the American Anthropological Association (AAA), Dr. Dickemann was recognized with a ‘Distinguished Member’ award in 2012. He was also an active member of SOLGA (Society of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists) and served as co-chair in 1993.

During the late 1980s he shifted his attention towards gay and lesbian studies, and in 1989 he taught a course titled 'The Anthropology of Homosexualities,' lauded as one of the first courses on homosexuality and anthropology.

Prior to his gender transition, while never officially coming out, he progressively became more comfortable dressing in a masculine style. His multiple affairs with women were to a certain extent an open secret. From an early age, he documented several observations on his own gender and sexuality. He began his medical gender transition journey in 1995. His diaries and some of the correspondence with his sister Margaret document some of his thoughts and experiences on transitioning.

Dr. Dickemann passed away at his home in Richmond, California on February 21, 2021.