Born: March 11, 1886
Died: August 4, 1958
Married: Maude Bacon Hotaling
Children: John F. Delahant, Jr., James Delahant, Robert Delahant, Mrs. Spencer B. (Ruth) Newman
Chiefly known for:
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, August 4, 1958
Stevenson Curator John Delahant Dies
John F. Delahant, Sr., 72, resident director of the Robert Louis Stevenson Memorial Cottage, died at the Saranac Lake General Hospital at 10:15 this morning following a short illness. He had been a patient for about ten days.
His body is at the Fortune Funeral Home in Saranac Lake.
Survivors include his wife, the former Maude Bacon Hotaling, of Saranac Lake, and three sons, John, Jr., of Saranac Lake, who is news director of radio station WNBZ; James, of Middleton; and Robert, of Teaneck, N.J. A daughter, Mrs. Spencer B. (Ruth) Newman, of Oradell, also survives. A brother, Anthony Brady Delahant, of Saranac Lake, survives and there are ten grandchildren.
Mr. Delahant was born in Cohoes, N.Y., March 11, 1886, son of Michael F. and Sarah Flanagan Delahant. He was a graduate of the Albany Academy of Cadets and of the Albany Business College. For several years following the death of his father he operated a chain of grocery stores owned by the family.
About 1913, he left Albany to accept a position with the New York Edison Company, forerunner of the present Consolidated Edison Company. In 1919, he branched out into his own electrical appliance business in New York City. In 1934, he returned to the Consolidated Edison Company as a sales executive, a position he held until his retirement in 1951.
In 1953, while visiting his son in Saranac Lake, he became interested in the Stevenson Cottage owned by Saranac Lake which at that time was in need of a resident director. Following a discussion with the village board, Mr. Delahant took over the work of maintaining the shrine.
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be noted, in the register of the cottage, which shows that in the past five years about 30,000 persons from all parts of the world have visited the shrine to the author of "Treasure Island" and many other novels and essays.
Many Stevenson experts came to the Cottage from time to time, but Mr. Delnhant would modestly admit that he had yet to be asked a question about Stevenson's life that he could not answer as te result of his extensive research into the unusual life of the famed author.
At various times during his life-time Mr. DeLahant had lived in Albany, New York City, and in several small communities in New Jersey, but just recently had made the remark that the five happiest years of his life had been spent in Saranac Lake, which he called "the friendliest and loveliest village in which one could live."
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