WILTON – Kermit Frost McAuley died peacefully on Thursday, Sept. 13, at his home in Wilton, surrounded by his loving family.

He was born Aug. 3, 1919, in Wilton, the son of Ernest and Alta (Frost) McAuley. He graduated from Wilton Academy in 1938, and served in the U.S. Army as a staff sergeant from 1941 to 1945. He married his sweetheart, Muriel Robbins of Dixfield in 1942.

He held several jobs before entering the paper mill, including dairy farming, logging, saw mill, wood cutting and then in 1949, he began work at the Oxford Paper Co., where he worked for 32 years, retiring as a back-tender in 1981.

He loved being in nature, enjoying gardening, farming, hiking, berrying, swimming, hunting and fishing, snowshoeing and skiing. Mostly he preferred spending time with his family at their summer cottage on Webb Lake in Weld, where he would entertain his grandchildren and great-grandchildren playing the harmonica or telling a story around a campfire, or playing croquet on the lawn.

For 10 years after retiring, he and his wife had great fun tapping maple trees on his wood lot and boiling the sap in his “sap shack” to make maple syrup. He was a charter member of the Dixfield Church of the Nazarene, where he served for many years as a church board member and head trustee.

He will always be remembered as someone who put his family first and was always willing to help others in need. If someone needed firewood cut or a roof shoveled, he was always there to lend a hand and he never took the light end of the work, but gave his all. He enjoyed visiting with friends and sharing a good laugh, but his gift of telling stories, especially of his hunting experiences and his many climbs up his favorite mountains, will always be remembered.

He leaves his loving wife of 65 years, Muriel of Wilton; three daughters and their husbands, Anita and Arnold Perkins of Cocoa, Fla., Linda and John Powell of Norman, Okla., and Avis and Scott Pulkkinen of Wilton; three granddaughters and their husbands, Susan and Jeff Files of Windham, Katrina and John Connolly of Wilton and Laura Perkins of Cocoa, Fla.; four great-grandchildren, Lilly, Jacob, Meghan and Colby; cousins, Leona Donaher of New Brunswick, Calif., Elaine Romano, Sherburn and Peggy Dakin, all of Florida; and many nieces and nephews.

He was predeceased by a younger brother, Odlin in 1954.