Dick was born in Baltimore, MD and graduated from Cornell University in mechanical engineering. He served in the US Air Force, and worked for Esso Research & Engineering before starting his own technology consulting firm. He later served in both the US Depts of Defense and Treasury, and held executive positions at Chase Manhattan Bank and McGraw-Hill.
In 1990, he taught at the International Management Institute in Kiev, Ukraine, and spent the next twelve years working in and out of Eastern Europe, ending up as executive vice president of the International Executive Service Corps. Dick is provost emeritus of the European College of Liberal Arts (now Bard College Berlin). Today, he is founder and publisher of Estuary Magazine, a quarterly print and online magazine all about the Connecticut River Watershed.