Daniel Howard Lacey, 89 of Chester, NH, passed away Saturday September 5, 2026. Dan was a lifelong resident of Port Crane, NY until moving to NH in 2014 to be closer to family and to enjoy living in a new home in an “over-55” community.
In 1960, after serving in the U.S. Air Force, he met a gal named Amy on a blind date on New Year’s Eve. On Valentine’s Day, a mere six weeks later, he asked her to marry him. He worked for the Local Union IBEW 325 in Binghamton, NY for 39 years as an electrician. Dan was a man of many talents.
Upon moving, he immediately set about helping his son build a 2-story horse barn. For many years he helped his wife cut and lay out quilting material for table runners, bed quilts, and wall hangings. One day he bought his own fabric, and began cutting, laying out, and sewing his own quilt, a geometric perspective pattern, which lays upon his bed.
Inspired by the paintings made by his deceased brother, Jay Deats, Dan began tole painting early in his retirement, decorating items and treasured objects with flowers including a tea set and foot stool for his granddaughters.
For more than 20 years, Dan regularly donated blood and platelets (over 9 gallons) to the American Red Cross. He was one of the 15% whose blood can be used for newborn babies.
He was a quiet man who enjoyed other quiet activities: fishing, walking his mile down in the cellar with hand weights when the weather was unpleasant, and reading old time westerns by Louis L’Amore and crime thrillers by John D. MacDonald (until character Travis McGee, that is). A handyman, he could fix just about anything after careful study. His first love, however, was gardening. There wasn’t a vegetable he couldn’t grow. If asked, he gave advice to others in the community garden at Mill Pine Village, where he took some good-natured ribbing from the guys for planting winter rye his first year there. He just shrugged, as the proof would be in the pudding, as they say. He was an observant man. You’d think he wasn’t listening to a conversation until he’d pipe up and throw in a well-timed zinger, something he did at the weekly breakfast with the ROMEOs.
He will be greatly missed by Amy, his wife of 65 years, Daniel S. (Karen) Lacey, Thomas (Vicki) Lacey, Diane (Tim) Krein, and many others, including his five grandchildren.
After cremation, a graveside service is being planned for the NH State Veteran’s Cemetery in Boscawen, NH on September 22 at 9:00. Donations in Dan’s memory may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association Alzheimer's Association P.O. Box 96011
Washington, DC 20090-6011 The Peabody Funeral Home and Crematorium, 15 Birch Street Derry, NH is assisting the family.