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MEMORIAL ARTICLE
Published Assembly Sep '95
John Blackford Dayton No.15445 Class of 1946
Died 1 December 1994 in Zephyr Cove, Nevada, aged 70 years. Interment:
Cremated; Ashes strewn in Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
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John Blackford Dayton was born in Reno, Nevada
on 3 November 1924. Jack grew up in Reno, attended Reno High
School, graduated in 1942, and went to the University of California
at Berkeley for a year before entering West Point in the summer
of 1943.
Jack's height placed him in G-2 Company, so he
spent three years in the "forgotten fifties." After
Beast Barracks, he was named company clerk, a job he enjoyed
because it gave him chances to poke fun at the pretentious first
classmen running cadet affairs. He went through plebe year without
any real difficulty, a smile on his face and a song in his heart,
staying out of trouble and off the area. During his upperclass
years, he did well academically. He would have done better had
it not been for the game of bridge. Many nights after dinner,
while good cadets were studying, Jack, along with three other
classmates, Lee, Stewart and Kane, had a continuous bridge game
going. This frequently caused some midnight oil to be burned
in the sinks to prepare for the next day's classes. Forays often
were made with cadet friends to the boodlers for something sweet.
This addiction persisted all his life.
Jack and Valerie Scheeline, his true love from
high school days, were married in Reno on 15 June 1946. After
attending the Basic Artillery Course at Fort Sill, Oklahoma,
Jack and Val had a tour in Germany for three years, serving in
the 32nd Field Artillery Battalion, 1st Infantry Division. Daughter
Pamela and son John Jr. were both born in Germany. Jack's next
assignment was a year at The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California
Institute of Technology in Pasadena, where he and a few other
officers prepared to set up one of the Army's first courses of
guided missile instruction at Fort Bliss, Texas. Jack then attended
the 1953-54 Artillery Advanced Course, and later, the Command
and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas from 1958
to 1959. He also received a master's degree in Aerospace Engineering
from the University of Arizona in 1962. Jack's last tour of duty
was with the Army's Office of the Chief of Research and Development
in the Pentagon, where he earned the Legion of Merit.
After his retirement from the Army in 1966, Jack
worked until 1968 as an engineer for the Lockheed Missiles and
Space Company in Sunnyvale, California. He and his brother Harold
then started Daytons Furniture at Round Hill Mall in Lake Tahoe,
Nevada. Their sons, John Jr. and Gary, bought the business from
their fathers in 1986. When Jack retired, he said he did so "to
become more active," and that he did as a community service
volunteer bar none.
Jack had been a dedicated and active member of
the South Shore Tahoe community ever since arriving in 1968,
but now he really accelerated his involvement. He was a member
and past president of the Barton Memorial Hospital Board of Directors:
Tahoe Douglas Chamber of Commerce: Tahoe Douglas Rotary Club:
the Tahoe Retired Officers Association: and the Nevada State
Retail Association. He was chairman of the board of the Tahoe
Douglas Fire Protection District as well as chairman of the Tahoe
Douglas Sewer District. He served on the Board of Directors of
the Lakeridge General Improvement District and the Cave Rock
Water District and was a member of the Barton Memorial Hospital
Auxiliary, the Douglas County Republican Committee and the George
Whittel High School Booster Club. When he died, the local paper
called Jack, Life's Consummate Cheerleader!
Jack was a vital and energetic gentleman of indomitable
spirit, plus a strong character and will (some might say "stubborn"),
coupled with an upbeat, boisterous sense of humor. He loved and
was loved by all who knew him. Jack was a great listener, with
a genuine interest in everyone he met, and could converse with
equal enthusiasm with a state senator about national affairs
or with a three year old about horsey rides. He truly enjoyed
traveling and cruising with him was a unique experience. He would
chat with the captain, kid the maitre d' and busboys, and dance
with all the ladies, large and small, young and old, and soon
knew everyone by name,
Jack was diagnosed as having inoperable cancer
on 10 October, and died on 1 December 1994, just a few weeks
past his 70th birthday.
He is survived by his wife of 48 years, Valerie
Scheeline Dayton; daughter, Parnela Woffinden of Mesa, Arizona:
son, John Jr.; brother, Harold of Reno; and sister E1izabeth
Erickson of San Francisco; eight grandchildren and many, many
friends who already truly miss him and will for a long time.
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