Lee Dalton - A Friend of the Scouts
 
During the course of 70 years, most organizations can expect to have a few pretty sterling characters pass through. We’ve had our share, too, in the Madison Scouts. And by any measure, one of the stars in our constellation would have to be Lee (LeRoy, actually) Dalton (1924-2007).
Lee Dalton was a member of the Madison Scouts Board of Directors, served on many committees and was an advisor to us all. It’s been more than 30 years since I last saw Lee. Probably at a Board meeting in 1975. But I’ve thought of him many times during my travels since then. A GREAT man. He helped teach me how to look for the good in things. On first consideration it may not seem like much, but it is.
Lee had a distinguished professional career. After his much decorated U.S. Navy service (he was on Iwo Jima for his 21st birthday), he enrolled at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and graduated with a degree in economics in 1951 and completed a three-year course of study at the UW Law School in just two years, graduating in 1953. In a few years he became an Assistant Attorney General, where I met him, and later became the first administrator of the state Division of Criminal Investigation. He distinguished himself there, as well as before the U.S. Supreme Court, where he won both cases he tried.
Lee had many outside interests, including leadership in the Madison Exchange Club and the National Exchange Club, golf, Civil War history and the Madison Scouts Drum & Bugle Corps.
One of the highest compliments that can be bestowed on a lawyer by any court and its judge(s) is “amicus curiae” (literally and figuratively “friend of the court”). The traits about Lee Dalton that I remember are:  gentleman; kind; wise; Assistant Attorney General; successful barrister before the U.S. Supreme Court; volunteer and friend of the Madison Scouts.  Thank you, Lee.
by David Endicott
Founding director of The Explorer Fund
 
Fleur de Lis
Friday, October 26, 2007
The Newsletter of the Madison Scouts