Darryl Byron Lamson

Darryl Byron Lamson, of Palm Harbor, Florida, passed away surrounded by his wife and sister on Sunday, June 22, 2025, at age 80. Darryl was born in New Haven CT, but was raised in North Yarmouth and Addison, ME. Throughout his life, he lived in 17 states for the purpose of his childhood, his education, his employment, and his retirement. He was a traveler by nature, having been in every county in every state in the US and most of the territories. Before the Covid shut down, he had visited all the national parks that had been created by that time. He and his wife traveled to 6 continents and over 30 countries and territories. His lifelong passion was genealogy. He first became interested in genealogy at the age of 15 when he just wanted to know how long he might live. That curiosity led to a lifetime of research and publications. He had 12 books published, 9 of them are in the Library of Congress and various genealogical libraries around the country. He was working on his final book about his mother's (Sylvia Marie Christensen Lamson) family. He had completed the first 964 pages! Darryl was a very generous soul. He founded the BYRON AND SYLVIA LAMSON SCHOLARSHIP FUND at the University of Maine Foundation in 2015 for the benefit of the University of Maine, Orono, Maine with a gift from Mr. Darryl Lamson and Dr. Sharon Lamson of Palm Harbor, FL. He also supported numerous charities here and abroad. He helped his wife initiate a scholarship for education majors at The Pennsylvania State University. Darryl earned a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Maine in 1966 and a Master of Science in Construction Management from the University of Missouri in Columbia in 1972. He obtained a Professional Engineer certificate in Pennsylvania and Missouri. After graduation, he was drafted into the Army and was in the Corps of Engineers with three major assignments. First doing aerial photo studies in Alabama to create ground points to make maps to help train pilots for tasks in Vietnam. Then he helped survey the Valley Forge cemetery for Medal of Honor recipients. His last assignment was surveying monuments (designated geographic points) in Arizona to tie the monuments to satellites for mapping purposes. After the army, he worked as an Assistant Resident Engineer at the Surry Power Station in Virginia; an Assistant Resident Engineer at the Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Plant in Pennsylvania; Assistant Resident Engineer for Stone and Webster in Cherry Hill, NJ; and ended his professional career in Missouri as an Area Engineer over 4 counties. He is survived by his wife, Dr. Sharon Lamson, of 47 years. He is also survived by his 3 sisters and their spouses, Diana Demers and her husband, Joe; Donna Price and her husband, William; and Debra Heathcote and her husband, Stephen. Darryl is also survived by many nieces and nephews and their children. He left his final thoughts for all of us as follows: Darryl's Recipe for a Good Life: 1) Work at something you enjoy doing, that pays enough for your family to live within their means and allows for a balanced life. 2)Find something other than your work that you can be passionate about. 3) Have a stable family life. 4) Do no harm and help others in any way you can. 5) Be happy. There will be no services at this time. His remains will be buried at a later date at the Lakeland Cemetery in Wilton, Maine where he will join his parents, and members of the Demers family. The family requests no flowers and if one so desires, a donation to a genealogical or historical society of one's choice would be appreciated.