Ian Ker Lamberton, aged 97, died at New Hanover Regional Medical Center on November 14, 2014. A resident of Wilmington since 1984, he will be remembered for his warmth and kindness, his dry humor and modesty, and the unflagging energy which kept him on the golf course through his 97th year and in the garden working until the end. Ian was born in Glasgow, Scotland, on July 10, 1917 at a time in World War I when enemy zeppelins flew nighttime raids over the city. His father fought for four years in France and Germany. His mother took Ian to the English countryside where food at that time was less scarce. In 1919 the family emigrated to the then Territory of Hawaii where Ian grew up. He went on to Stanford University and Harvard Business School. In World War II he served as an aviation ordnance officer on aircraft carriers in the Atlantic and in the Pacific. In addition to four sinkings, his carrier and its escort group captured an enemy submarine, now on display at the Chicago Museum of Commerce and Industry. When the war ended, Ian joined his father’s accounting firm in Honolulu. In 1948, while furthering his accounting education in Philadelphia, he met, through a Navy shipmate, and after several months of courtship married Maria Lewis (Lewie) Barroll, whose mother was a member of the Bellamy family in Wilmington. They spent their first year in San Francisco and then moved back to Hawaii where their children were born and where Ian became a partner in his father’s firm. They subsequently merged their firm into the international firm of Haskins & Sells, now known as Deloitte. Ian transferred to the New York offices where he worked until his retirement. He then joined Financial Executives Institute in New York, spending several years there before retiring again. Ian and Lewie had spent vacation time in Wilmington for many years and always looked forward to retiring there, which they did in 1984. Ian was active in business associations, and, with Lewie, in church, social, and charitable groups in the communities in which they lived, among them the Boy Scouts of America and The United Way of Darien, CT, of which he was president, as well as Civitan, The Good Shepherd Center, and Saint James Church. They traveled extensively, and Ian played a lot of golf. He is survived by his beloved wife of 65 years, Lewie. Also surviving are their four children: Ian Ker Lamberton, Jr. (and his wife Ines,) of Tacoma, WA; Anna Barroll Lamberton Whelpley, of Wilmington; Maria Lewis Morrow (and her husband, Robert,) of Wyndmoor, PA; and Rolland H. Lamberton, of Wilmington. He is also survived by six grandchildren: Mary B. Whelpley, of Wilmington; Robert H. Morrow IV and Anna L. Morrow, both students at UNCW, and Ian L. Morrow, of Los Angeles; and by Maria Lewis Lamberton, of Ithaca, NY, and John K. Lamberton, of Los Angeles. In addition, he is survived by his sister Alicia Garnett (and her husband, Stephen,) of Jamestown, RI, and numerous nieces and nephews and cousins of his and younger generations. He was predeceased by his brother, Alastair R. H. Lamberton, of Louisville, KY. A service will be held at Saint James Church, Wednesday, November 19, at 2 p.m. The family will receive friends at the church immediately following. Interment will be private and occur at a later date and place. In lieu of flowers, those who wish to might consider a charitable gift to Saint James Church or The Good Shepherd Center. Condolences to the family at www.andrewsmortuary.com.
