CARTER COUNTY, TN - OBITUARIES - Cmdr. Dayton A. Seiler, 10 Jul 2001
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Cmdr. Dayton A. Seiler

   Cmdr. Dayton Albert Seiler, Retired, 87, 836 East 2nd Street, 
Elizabethton, died Tuesday, July 10, 2001, at Pine Ridge Care Center.
   Cmdr. Seiler was a native of Carter County and a son of the late Molly 
Hunter Seiler and noted Attorney J. Frank Seiler. He was a Direct Descendant 
of Col. John Carter, and General Landon and Elizabethton Carter, the early 
pioneers of whom Carter County and Elizabethton were named.
   Landon Carter was the First Secretary of the State of Franklin and later 
the First Secretary of the State of Tennessee. Cmdr. Seiler was the grandson 
of Carrie Elizabeth Carter and the grandnephew of Samuel P. Carter, the only 
man in U.S. History to have held the rank of both Admiral in the Navy and 
General in the Army.
   Cmdr. Seiler graduated from Elizabethton High School in 1930 and attended 
East Tennessee State College, Johnson City. In 1932, he was appointed 
Midshipman to the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Md. He graduated from there 
in 1936. He received two postgraduate degrees from the California Institute 
of Technology (Cal Tech), Pasadena, Calif., where he was elected to Sigma Xi, 
the honorary engineering fraternity.
   During World War II, Cmdr. Seiler organized and led the Navy Aeronautic 
Technical Intelligence Mission to Europe, of which his friend, Charles 
Lindberg, was also a member, to examine German scientific achievements. One of 
the important results of this was the bringing of Werner Von Braun's 
Preenemunde Team and their supersonic wind tunnel to our country.
   Cmdr. Seiler participated in the initiation, planning and development of 
15 major technical weapons programs. He prepared the initial planning and 
organization for Admiral Raborn that started the Submarine-Launched Ballistic 
Missile System, POLARIS.
   After retiring from the U.S. Navy in 1960, Cmdr. Seiler became the owner 
and operator of All-America Books, a Patriotic Christian Bookstore in 
California. He also organized Mechanical Arts Corporation to design and 
manufacture equipment for business and office use while continuing to lecture 
throughout Southern California for Coast Federal Saving, on Patriotic subjects.
   Cmdr. Seiler returned to Elizabethton with his family in 1970. He also 
started a printing business and printed T.I. (Texas Instruments) Newspapers, 
as well as many business printings.
   Survivors include his wife of 55 years, Dorothy Rankin Seiler; a son and 
daughter-in-law, David and Kathy Seiler, Hagerstown, Md.; six daughters and 
five sons-in-law, Shari and Ron Stern, Irvine, Calif., Sandy and Med Peck, 
Huntington Beach, Calif., Susanne Seiler, Elizabethton, Melinda and Marc 
Atkin, Swampscott, Mass., Diane and Dale Floyd, Bell Buckle, Tenn., and Dodie 
and Shawn Duffy, Channel Islands, Calif.; 10 granddaughters; three grandsons; 
and a first cousin, Landon Carter, Bristol.
   Memorial Funeral Chapel is in charge of arrangements.
   
   SEILER -- Graveside services for Cmdr. Dayton Albert Seiler, Retired, 
87, 836 East 2nd Street, Elizabethton, who died Tuesday, July 10, 2001, will 
be conducted at 3 p.m. Friday, July 13, at Happy Valley Memorial Park with 
Chaplain Blaine Smrekar officiating. Interment will follow the service. Full 
Military Honors will be accorded. Friends may register their presence at the 
funeral home. To those who prefer, memorials may be made to the Carter County 
Rescue Squad, P.O. Box 776, Elizabethton, Tenn. 37644. Family and friends will 
assemble at the funeral home at 2:30 p.m. Friday to go to the cemetery. 
Memorial Funeral Chapel is in charge of arrangements.