Kevin Peter Dalton, of Kennebunk, beloved husband of Susan Rowe Dalton, died peacefully on September 5, 2023, surrounded by family. Kevin died of prostate cancer. He was 72. After a year of treatment, Kevin elected to enter hospice care. Kevin was known, even during his last days, as a person who left things better than he found them.

Kevin was born in Ogdensburg, New York on October 4, 1950. He lived in St. Lawrence County until leaving for Burlington in 1972 to attend graduate school at the University of Vermont. A faculty mentor observing his work noticed how Kevin “brought order to things,” something he did everywhere he went. While in Burlington, Kevin met Susan. They would marry on July 2, 1977, in a small ceremony witnessed by friends. But as early as 1975-6, when he taught science at Brushton-Moira Regional School in New York, his feelings were clear. In a diary, he wrote of his students’ evaluations of a rocky first year teaching: “They contain much valid information about my performance.” On that notebook’s next page, he wrote: “Other topics occupy my thoughts these days besides those of education … Susan … is an incredibly good companion and I am very much in love with her.”

After working for two years as a science teacher in South Hero, Vermont, Kevin hung out a shingle—literally. From 1979 to 1983, Kevin was a self-employed carpenter and cabinetmaker. He designed and built cadenzas and bookshelves for individuals, businesses, and schools with precision and care. He worked with people fairly, with integrity, bringing order and beauty to every improvement project. During this period, Kevin became a father to Timothy Kevin (born in Burlington in 1979); Mark Edward (born in Burlington in 1982); and Meghan Rowe (born in Boston in 1985). Even after carpentry shifted from vocation to hobby, Kevin thought of himself as a “fixer.” Late in 1983, he found the job he’d hold for 20 years as an electrical engineer focused on quality control at Teradyne, a company that tests and improves computer equipment. In January of 1984, Kevin’s new job took the family to the Boston area. They moved to Natick, Massachusetts, where they lived on Hartford Street in a house that he carefully renovated and improved. In April 1994, the family moved to Mill Corner, a neighborhood in Acton, Massachusetts, a short walk from the train. Kevin commuted to work on this train until July, 2003, when he left Teradyne on long-term disability due to the challenges of living with adult onset deafness. He continued to be active and creative during this transition, taking on the care of the house, immersing himself in watercolor and oil painting, and supporting his young adult children. In this period and throughout his life, he was an avid reader of The New Yorker magazine, of Dave Barry’s humor collections, of the thickest biographies in the “New Nonfiction” shelves of his local libraries, and of books that fed his spiritual curiosity: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance; The Tao of Physics, and the work of Thich Nhat Hanh who, he said, combined with Simon and Garfunkel to provide the twin sources of his faith for decades. After retiring from Teradyne, Kevin spent many hours each week volunteering at Household Goods, Inc, a nonprofit donating refurbished furniture and decorations to families in crisis. In 2019, after years of visiting Maine for family vacations, Kevin and Susan moved to Kennebunk.

Kevin came from humble beginnings. The second of eight brothers born to Eileen Mary Finnin Dalton and Albert Thomas Dalton, Kevin shared his childhood home in Madrid with Pat (deceased), David, Christopher (deceased), Mike, Brian, Matthew, and Peter. The family’s house stood across the street from a dairy farm owned by Ray Dalton, Kevin’s uncle. The brothers often helped on the farm. When Kevin finished in the field, one of his favorite places to cool off after haying was the nearby Grass River. Upon graduating from Madrid Waddington High School he attended State University of New York Agricultural and Technical College at Canton (ATC). He transferred to State University of New York at Potsdam, where he majored in Physics and earned the Jessie J. McNall Award for excellence in science, awarded to a sophomore with an interest in teaching. Outside the classroom, Kevin began his long relationship with soccer while playing for the Madrid-Waddington High School “Yellowjackets.” Kevin was a wing who in his senior year scored a hat trick in one game and led his team in goals for the season. In Natick, Kevin joined and helped manage the “Route 9 United” team, which was part of the New England “Over-the-Hill” Soccer League. He played consistently until balance issues connected to his diagnosis of Neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2), the treatment of which caused his deafness, made soccer too difficult. Kevin accepted this loss, as he accepted many other losses in his life, with grace.

The list of things he left better than he found includes not just schools and houses, but also the St. Lawrence Seaway. In 1969, New York state’s “North Country” region prepared for a binational celebration of the public works project bringing ships inland from the Atlantic Ocean through the Great Lakes and as far west as Duluth. When an official at SUNY Potsdam needed help to prepare the town of Massena to host President Richard Nixon and Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, reportedly he approached Kevin. “I like what you do,” the official told Kevin, “And I’d like you to do something for us.” That ‘something’ was maintenance work on the Seaway, which had opened ten years before. That summer, Kevin cored concrete and checked the complicated design for quality control. This, too, captures what Kevin did everywhere he went. What this administrator liked so much was exactly what made Kevin special: his ability to ensure the fidelity of the smallest parts of the grandest projects. He did what he did not only as part of a crew caring for an aquatic public works project spanning 370 miles, but in countless smaller moments: at mass on a freezing Sunday morning; under the hood of a finicky Studebaker; in the office with motherboard after Teradyne motherboard; at home with his beloved family as they grew and expanded with the years.

Among Kevin’s greatest joys in his last ten years were his two grandchildren, Arjuna Peacham Suri-Dalton, age 10, and Ramona Kanta Suri-Dalton, age 8, both of New York City. Dubbed “Püpa,” Kevin was vibrant when with them. They spent their time building birdhouses and making sculptures from scrap material; singing cereal jingles from the 1950s and laughing at the wordless antics of Shaun the Sheep; riding bikes in loops around Webhannet Place; designing intricate miniature sets for a slate of stop-action short films. While Kevin’s deafness made social interactions very difficult, art in particular offered Kevin and his grandchildren a shared vocabulary. The trio organized an exhibition called the “Ramona, Arjuna, Pupa” Museum (RAP) during extended summer visits to Kennebunk that started in summer 2020. With Arjuna and Ramona as docents, and their “Püpa” as the curator, the walls and shelves of the Kennebunk house are a record of joy, collaboration, and creativity.

Family and friends will gather to celebrate Kevin’s life at 2pm on Saturday, September 23, at South Congregational Church UCC, located on 2 North St in Kennebunkport. Following this celebration, Susan invites celebrants to her home at 26 Webhannet Place, Kennebunk to view Kevin’s creations of visual art and domestic efficiency; to enjoy the music from Kevin’s hearing years; and to share stories from throughout Kevin’s life of ways he left all those he loved a little better than he found them. Light refreshments will be served. Please park in the lot of the Webhannet Place offices at 5 Webhannet Place.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be sent to one of two places. Because Kevin loved making art his whole life, particularly in his retirement and especially with his grandchildren, the family encourages those who loved Kevin to consider a community membership with The Gallery of Lake Saint Lawrence Arts. This exhibition and community space in Kevin’s hometown of Waddington, New York occupies the same building as the locally-owned grocery and meat store where Kevin worked as a teenager. In his last summer, Kevin fondly remembered working there for its proprietor, Al Smith, who he admired. Donations may also be sent to the South Congregational Church UCC, in recognition for the steadfast support of Rev. Susie Townsley during Kevin’s last days.

Kevin is survived by his beloved wife Susan, and by his three children and their loved ones: Timothy, of New York City, who married Seema Suri in 2008, and their two children, Arjuna and Ramona; Mark, of Somerville, Massachusetts, and his girlfriend Nell Thorne, of Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Meghan, of Brooklyn, who married Jimmy Byess in 2023. Kevin also loved the dogs in his family, Butte, of New York City; Disco, of Brooklyn; and Finnin, of Kennebunk. The entire family also wishes to extend its gratitude for their exceptional skill and compassionate care to Hospice of Southern Maine and to Dr. Mark Pomerantz at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Kevin’s ashes will be scattered on Rowe Hill in Peacham, VT at a later date.

To share a memory or leave a message of condolence please visit Kevin’s Book of Memories Page at www.bibberfuneral.com.

Arrangements are in the care of Bibber Memorial Chapel, 67 Summer Street, Kennebunk, ME 04043.

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