John Rudisill Vinton, 73, died July 8 in Brunswick. A devoted family man and accomplished physician, he lived an adventurous life and settled on the coast of Maine, not far from the woods where he was raised.
His greatest joy in life was his family. He adored his wife, Mary Ann, for over 50 years and did all of the cooking. Together they raised two boys, Nathaniel and Andrew, whom he affectionately said could be replaced with insolent robots. He was delighted when they married well and started families of their own.
Like his father, he was an able outdoorsman, deeply familiar with the woods, waters, and animals of Maine. He trekked in Sikkim, skied in Zermatt, and rowed the Grand Canyon. Late in life he studied deer behavior without firing his rifle and became a licensed, but non-practicing trapper.
Born in 1941, he was the only son of Catherine French and Sumner Brainerd “Bill” Vinton of West Lovell, who ran a hunting and summer camp on Kezar Lake. He grew up a little prince doted on by older sisters Fran and Lyn and defended by younger sister Betsy. He hated grey birch and wet woolens, but nevertheless became a registered Maine guide.
He was schooled at Gould Academy before attending Wesleyan University, where he studied English literature. In 1964 he married Mary Ann Chase, a fellow Mainer, in Sheepscot, and served in the U.S. Army. He and his wife spent three years with the Peace Corps in Chile, where they mastered Spanish and taught pottery techniques.
After returning to the U.S., he and Mary Ann matriculated at the Medical College of Pennsylvania, trained at Montefiore Hospital & Medical Center in the Bronx, and studied infectious disease in Brazil. They returned to Maine in 1977 to hang a shingle and practice internal medicine in Damariscotta.
In 1985, Dr. Vinton and Mary Ann moved the family to Salt Lake City and took jobs in the Medical Industrial Complex. The Utah mountains provided easy access to skiing, and the red-rock deserts reminded him of Zane Grey novels he read as a child. He followed his sons into new adventures, travelling the west to watch them ski race and joining them on rafting trips when they worked as guides in the canyons of the Colorado and Green Rivers.
He read voraciously and travelled widely in North America, Mexico, South America, Europe, the Caribbean, and Southeast Asia. His daughters-in-law maintain that he gave the best hugs.
He is survived by his wife of 50 years, Mary Ann; sons, Nathaniel and wife Elizabeth of Chappaqua, N.Y., and Andrew and wife Emma Dudley of Singapore; the latest delight of his life, granddaughters, Anna Roby Vinton, Euphemia Chase Vinton, and Evelyn Ida Vinton, who helped him, at the end, appreciate the circularity of life; sisters, Francis Smith, Evelyn Beliveau and Elizabeth Powel; their families; and countless friends and admirers who knew him from years he spent living in Utah, New York City, and abroad.
At his request there will be no service. Ashes will be interred in the Vinton lot in the Sheepscot cemetery.
In lieu of flowers his family asks that donations be made in his name to Gould Academy, the Snowbird Sports Education Foundation, or The Nature Conservancy.
