Diana Kay Hamilton passed away July 11th, in San Diego, California. She was 78 years old.  

Diana Kay Hamilton was born early in the morning on January 1st, in Decatur, Indiana.  She was among the very first of the “Baby Boomer” generation.  But anyone who knew Diana understood that she didn’t fit neatly into any historian’s simplistic characterizations of generations.

Diana was the first of many things–the first woman in her family to graduate from college, the first (as far as we know) in her family to ride a motorcycle or pilot a sailboat. But she was also among the last of certain things–the last of an ethos that today is found mostly in classic movies. She valued family, art, and animals; she turned houses into welcoming homes.

Diana attended Indiana University, did graduate work in speech and hearing, and began her professional life as a teacher at the Indiana School for the Deaf in Indianapolis. She was among the first generation of teachers to embrace sign language, and her experiences in those classrooms–in a time in which deaf children were often ignored or even abandoned by their families–shaped her for the rest of her life.

Diana took care of many living things that others might have regarded as damaged, including her husband Jack, whose brain tumor eventually robbed him of his mobility and hearing in his last years. 

Diana was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma almost five years ago. She had vast reservoirs of personal strength and was in good health otherwise, so she (nearly) defied every medical prediction. That same strength made her final moments longer and more difficult than they might have otherwise been, but that strength also meant her family and friends had more time with her.

Diana wasn’t one to rage or rave or curse, but she did not go gentle into that good night. She wanted to live–she wanted to see her friends and family at Wawasee one more time. She was ticket-in-hand, but a new complication forced her to stay with her family in San Diego.

Diana predeceased her husband, Dr. John G. Hamilton, and is survived by her sons, Christopher Hamilton (wife Elizabeth Tesolin), Jeremy Hamilton (wife Megan Hamilton), and three cherished grandsons, Spencer, Henry and Brooks Hamilton.

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