Dick was born in at his parents' townhouse in
Brooklyn, New York on May 12, 1919. His parents were William Karl Dick and
Madeleine Talmage Force. Madeleine survived the sinking where her first husband
John Jacob Astor IV died, and had a
posthumously born son named
John Jacob Astor VI with him. Dick also had an elder full brother named William Force Dick. He grew up in Manhattan and at the age of seven he shot a golden-crowned kinglet. He frequently visited the
American Museum of Natural History where he met Frank Chapman, James Chapin, Robert Cushman Murphy and Roy Chapman Andrews. He was also able to observe Francis Lee Jaques work on paintings in the backgrounds of exhibits. His great-grandfather, William Dick, was an early investor in the
National Sugar Refining Co., of which his father was a director. After the war he went to live on Dixie Plantation where he built a house in 1947. ==Career==