Dayton William Lane Moore died unexpectedly Feb. 6, 2011 in Napa. Born Aug. 1, 1992 in Santa Cruz, Dayton then lived in Minden, Nev. before his family moved to Napa when he was in third grade.
Dayton attended and the , where he made many lasting friends. He then moved on to before transferring to the Napa Valley Alternative School until October, 2010.
He worked as a barista at in South Napa Marketplace, and loved to skateboard through the streets of Napa on his longboard—sometimes with an Indian headdress atop his curly red hair.
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An avid duck and pheasant hunter, Dayton was a Legacy Greenwing with Ducks Unlimited and especially enjoyed hunting with his grandfather, with whom he shared a love of wildlife and the outdoors.
Dayton was a poet with a passion and a gift for creative expression: He won first prize in the 2009 Jessamyn West Creative Writing Competition, sponsored by , for his poem titled “One for Sorrow.”
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He was also an avid reader whose favorite books included Joseph Heller’s classic war satire Catch-22 and The perks of being a Wallflower by American novelist Stephen Chbosky, and a music lover who regularly filched his parents’ and sister’s CDs in search of new sounds.
After discovering a cache of records, Dayton persuaded his father David, who’d been a disc jockey, to hook up the old turntable -- and even went so far as to carefully clean some old vinyl LPs that had suffered water damage, so they would play again.
“He put in serious effort to be able to listen to those records,” his mother said.
“It mattered to him. If he loved something, he was full-on in it.”
And Dayton loved so many things: Xbox 360, staying up all night with friends, “pulling off shenanigans,” as his sister Jennifer said with a smile.
But Dayton’s greatest love was for other people, from his family to casual acquaintances who quickly became fast friends if they could keep up with his energetic creativity.
“He pushed people to live, constantly,” said longtime friend Anna Wheeler, who first met Dayton at River School.
Another friend from middle school, Whitney Davis, recalled that Dayton once “hijacked” her sketchpad and filled it with pages of notes on his philosophy of life before returning it to her. She cherishes it now.
For Derek Jarschke, Dayton’s closest friend since seventh grade, he was “someone who was just happy to see you no matter what.
“No matter what mood you were in, you’d always walk off happy and calm.”
Dayton loved his friends as much as they loved him: In his bedroom at home, the dresser drawers are full of their handwritten notes and other memorabilia decks the walls.
As Kira Woods wrote, in one of dozens of tributes from heartbroken friends on Dayton’s Facebook page, he “was someone you just had to be friends with. It was almost impossible to be mad at him and he could make anyone smile or laugh.
“Dayton was just Dayton. There was no way to explain him and if you were friends with him you knew why. He was smart and friendly and tried to live life to the fullest. He was full of stories and could always give an explanation to something that didn’t make sense. He was like a big brother that was always there for you no matter what.”
Friend Jenn Shubin called Dayton “my guidance, a fearless soul.”
That fearlessness led Dayton to explore everything from the crawlspaces under Napa High to the thoughts in other people’s heads – even when the topic might be touchy.
“People need to understand that Dayton wasn’t afraid to be controversial,” said his mother Kelly. “He wanted to engage that conversation and make people think, and see where your viewpoint was and why it was where it was, and who you were and what you were about. He liked to have those kinds of conversations.”
His father David said, “He lived a great life. I know it was short, but it was a wonderful life that he lived.”
As friend Russell Wilson wrote on Dayton’s Facebook wall:
“It's almost like you knew you were going to leave early the way you lived and enjoyed life so much. I think it was really awesome the way you lived 150 years in just 18 r.i.p.”
Dayton is survived by a large and loving family including his parents Kelly and David Moore and sister Jennifer Moore, all of Napa; grandmother Sondra Moore of Marysville; grandparents Robert and Launi Logan of Sparks, Nev.; uncles, aunts and cousins: Mick and Sherry Moore and their children Mike and Lindsey Moore, Rick and Linda Moore and their son Cody Moore, Jim and Sherry Gullett and their children Kenny, Tiffany and Christine Gullett and Jason and Bonnie Whipple and their children, all of Yuba City; Pam and Jim Busby and their children Bryan and Jessi Busby of Sacramento; Louie and Connie Peligrino and their children Louis and Angelina Peligrino, of Portland, Ore. and many others.
Donations in Dayton’s memory may be made to the River School Foundation, 2447 Old Sonoma Rd., Napa, CA 94558 and to Ducks Unlimited, c/o Montna Farms, 12755 Garden Highway, Yuba City, CA 95991.
The family is holding a private interment in Stockton. A celebration of Dayton’s life is scheduled for Feb. 19 at 10 a.m. in the parish hall at in Napa. For more information, email rememberingdayton@gmail.com.
