Necrology

Gordon John Dalton '38

Jun. 14, 1916-Mar. 25, 2005

Gordon John Dalton ’38, a former travel agent in Panama, was born on June 14, 1916, in Deer Creek, IL. A son of William A., a Presbyterian minister, and Minnie Richardson Dalton, he grew up in Oneida Castle, NY, not far from Clinton, and came to the College from Oneida High School in 1934. Gordon Dalton joined the local fraternity Beta Kappa and ran cross-country and track, becoming captain of the track team in his senior year. Called “indispensable to the Neutrals in maintaining athletic prestige,” he also participated in a variety of interclass sports. He worked his way through Hamilton waiting on tables in Commons and earning his board as a Chapel bell ringer, a duty in which he took great pride.

Following his graduation in 1938, Gordon Dalton obtained a job at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. When the Fair ended, he became a trainee-messenger for the central Hanover Bank & Trust Co. in Manhattan. He was sales manager for Air Reduction Co., an air conditioning business, in 1942 when he obtained a purser’s license from the Coast Guard and went to sea with the U.S. Merchant Marine in the midst of World War II. As a purser sailing on “rust buckets,” Liberty ships, and various other cargo vessels, including
two that were torpedoed, he helped transport supplies to Allied forces across both the Atlantic and the Pacific.

After the war and brief employment by a travel agency in New York City, Gordon Dalton went back to sea as a purser for the Panama Line, which ran between New York and Panama. He was on the S.S. Cristobal when he met Margaret Stapleton Posey, a passenger aboard who was a longtime resident of the Canal Zone. They were married in Balboa on September 30, 1947. The Daltons thereafter settled in Panama, where Gordon vastly improved on the Spanish he had learned from Professor Wentworth D. Fling. He also found employment selling jewelry wholesale.

In 1964, Gordon Dalton (known as “Flaco” — Spanish for “Slim” — by his friends) was manager of a travel agency in Panama when he decided to open his own agency specializing in an innovative array of group tours of Latin America. The business prospered, and it gave him the opportunity to travel widely, which he greatly enjoyed. In 1973, however, he and “Maggie” decided to retire, sell the business, and move back to “Yankeeland.” They bought a home in Pinehurst, NC, and moved there the following year. Later, as Pinehurst became congested with golfers, they joined the Country Club of North Carolina and built a new home on its grounds. There, while Maggie gardened and played bridge, Gordon enthusiastically took to golf. In recent years they continued to reside in Pinehurst, but in smaller quarters.

Gordon H. Dalton, an ever faithful and supportive Hamiltonian, died in Pinehurst on March 25, 2005, of cancer. In addition to his wife of 57 years, he is survived by a stepson, Carl A. Posey, and four stepgrandchildren and a sister.

Necrology Home