Dayton W. Nordin

Dayton W. Nordin, a retired executive and financial adviser, was a longtime choir director in the western suburbs. He also bred racehorses and experimented with breeding cattle, hogs and sheep. His father, Harry, had been a music professor at Wheaton College, a church choir director and leader of the Chicago Swedish Glee Club.

As a student at Lyons Township High School in La Grange, he was noted as a track star and for his ability to play 27 musical instruments. He won the high hurdle event in the state high school competition and competed in the Chicago Daily News Relays against future Olympic medal winners Jesse Owens and Ralph Metcalfe. He graduated from the Vandercook School of Music.

Mr. Nordin worked for 25 years for Calavo, a major distributor of tropical fruits, and then served as a financial adviser for Investors Diversified Services. He began his choral work in 1941 as director of La Grange’s Grace Lutheran Church, a position he held for 38 years. In the early 1980s, Mr. Nordin took over the choir at the First Christian Church of Downers Grove and directed it for 10 years.

Mr. Nordin also wrote and published “The Choirmaster’s Workbook” and “How to Organize and Direct the Church Choir.” At his home in Downers Grove and on a farm in Mt. Carroll, he bred, trained and raced horses for many years.