Necrology

John “Dix” Wayman '47

Feb. 14, 1925-May. 17, 2022

John “Dix” Wayman ’47, P’80 died on May 17, 2022, in Ithaca, N.Y. Born on Feb. 14, 1925, in Oneonta, N.Y., he came to Hamilton from Oneonta Central High School. At 16, Dix acquired a 16’ wooden Comet daysailer he named Skipper, which spurred a lifelong passion for sailing.

Given that interest, he not surprisingly enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserves in February 1943 following his high school graduation. After completing basic training, he did officer training at St. Lawrence University and then worked at Notre Dame University for the Navy’s Office of Risk Management. In October 1944, he was commissioned as an ensign. He served on three supply ships during World War II: the USS Matagorda, a seaplane tender and escort ship which was mainly in the Atlantic Ocean; the USS Kenton, which played an important role in the Okinawa invasion in 1945; and the USS Allagash, which transported fuel from the U.S. to North Atlantic installations in the war’s final months.

When he arrived on the Hill, Dix pledged Chi Psi fraternity. He was selected for the Doers & Thinkers honor society at the end of his freshman year and was a member of the International Relations Club as a senior. By graduation, he had determined he wanted to become a dentist, like his father. The academic credits he earned through officer training combined with the coursework he took at the College following his discharge enabled him to complete his degree in June 1947.

From Hamilton, Dix went to dental school at the University of Pennsylvania and completed the program in 1951, when he moved to Auburn, N.Y., for his residency. In June 1952, he established a practice in Ithaca that he maintained for 41 years until he retired in 1993. He married Barbara Shirey on June 18, 1955, and they had three sons and a daughter. Barbara died in 2016.

One advantage of living in Ithaca was its location: at the south end of Cayuga Lake, it was ideal for a sailor such as Dix. In the fall of 1967, he ordered a Dutch-built 30’, steel-hulled, wooden-sparred sloop and named it Blue Skies after Irving Berlin’s song of the same title. It was launched in Cayuga Lake in 1968 and could accommodate all six members of the Wayman family, albeit in very close quarters.

In addition to sailing on Cayuga, Dix took the family on longer voyages. One destination was Watkins Glen, N.Y., at the south end of Seneca Lake, which required a day of tacking back and forth into the prevailing north wind to get to the head of Cayuga, unstepping the mast and stowing the rigging before traversing the Cayuga-Seneca Canal by auxiliary power (which some sailors call a “gas breeze”) and then rerigging the sloop for the trip down Seneca to its southern end.

On other occasions, Dix and his family crew sailed to the Thousand Islands and to Toronto, the latter requiring an overnight sail across Lake Ontario from Oswego. Dix divided his crew into four-hour watches for that trip. Perhaps their most memorable voyage took place late in the summer of 1976: a week-long sail up Cayuga and, after making their way east to the Seneca River, the New York State Barge Canal, and the Mohawk River, sailing down the Hudson from Troy to New York City, arriving just ahead of the fleet of tall ships assembling to celebrate America’s bicentennial.

Dix’s devotion to sailing also led him to become a member and, during the 1980s, commander of the Ithaca chapter of the U.S. Power Squadron, an organization dedicated to promoting maritime safety.

Dix’s land-based interests included various forms of musical theater. He supported both the Ithaca College School of Music and the Ithaca Opera, and would arrive at opera performances dressed in a cape, top hat, and white gloves. He was a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Ithaca and served as a deacon. His other philanthropic interests included the hospital ship Hope, Doctors Without Borders, the United Way, and the Ithaca Foundation. He also arranged for the establishment, after his death, of the Dix and Barbara Wayman Foundation to support a variety of Ithaca charities.

John “Dix” Wayman is survived by his four children, including John Walter Wayman ’80, and five grandchildren.

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