Obituary of John Dickinson Elmer

John Elmer died on the 20th day of October, 2023 at his home in Canton, New York. He was 89 years of age and is survived by his wife, Ann; his daughter, Hillary Lammens, Norwalk, Connecticut, and her husband, Hank, and their children, Greer and Jake; and his daughter Allison Lappin, Morrisville, North Carolina, her husband Michael, and their children, Michael, Christopher and Jordan. 

John was born in White Plains, New York, on March 17, 1934, the only child of George and Edyth Elmer. He received his early schooling in the metropolitan New York area and during World War 2, he attended the Mohonk School for Boys, New Paltz, New York. From 1947 through 1951 he attended Gouverneur High School and then entered St. Lawrence University where he majored in English, was a member of Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity, the ski team, and armed with his deer rifle, he was a member of the civilian posse searching for prisoners who escaped from the St. Lawrence County Jail in April, 1955. John was graduated from St. Lawrence in June. Needing a summer job, John hitchhiked to Wisdom, Montana, to work as a ranch and on the Bar B Ranch “eight bucks a day, room and board.” Returning home he was drafted into the United States Army and was sent to Ft. Jackson, South Carolina, for basic training and then to Ft. Gordon, Georgia, for Signal Corps training. His first permanent station was Ft. Myer, Virginia, where he worked in the Pentagon in the Department of the Army code room before being sent to Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, Paris, France, to work in Codes and Ciphers during his final year in the military. While in France he played on the post football team and was posted for two months temporary duty on the Ski Patrol in Berchtesgaden, West Germany. John elected to be honorably discharged in Paris in September, 1957, whereupon he traveled to Scotland to spend a year as a non-matriculating student at the University of Edinburgh.

Vacation time was spent in Britain, and in Spain, Gibraltar, and Morocco. Returning home, he entered the Syracuse University College of Law and while in law school, he wrote extensively for the Syracuse Law Review and spent his final summer at The Hague Academy of International Law, The Hague, Netherlands. After being graduated from law school, he received a Ford Foundation grant trough the Syracuse University Africa-Asia Program and traveled to Dacca, East Pakistan, to work with the law firm of Orr, Dignam & Co.. In November, he married Eileen Cashman in Karachi, West Pakistan. Throughout the remainder of his grant, they traveled in Pakistan and India, with brief stops in Lebanon and Egypt before returning to the United States. John secured employment in New York City with Rogers, Hoge & Hills and worked with the firm for two years before deciding that a city practice was not to his liking. In the fall of 1964, he opened an office for the general practice of law “whatever came in the door” in Canton where he worked alone “except for the occasional client” and as a partner with Sidney H. Kitay. John was a member of the American, New York, and St. Lawrence County Bar Associations and for the many years that he was general counsel for St. Lawrence University, a member of the National Association of College and University Attorneys. After his first marriage ended in divorce, he married Ann Crimmel, and continued to live and practice in Canton. In 1998 he transferred his practice to George and Andrew Silver, and retired from the practice of law.

After retirement, John continued to live in Canton and remained active pursuing his love of hunting, fishing, skiing, and tennis. He was an accomplished fly tier for his own use and traveled the world after trout and salmon “cold weather fishing takes one to agreeable places.” Aside from North America, he visited New Zealand on several occasion, as well as England, Scotland, Slovenia, Russia, Mongolia, Argentina, and Chile. In fact, when he last visited Argentina, he left his fly rod home, celebrated his 74th birthday at polo school. “I didn’t tell my daughters about that one as they may have thought the old man had gone around the bend.” A life well lived.  Memorial to be held at a later date.