Charles E. Dutton, a high-level National Security Agency cryptologic engineer, and Margaret Rose Dutton, a day care owner, died within hours of each other at a Georgia hospice.
Mr. Dutton, 81, died Nov. 15 of renal failure at Wellstar Hospice Care at Kennesaw Mountain in Marietta, Georgia, and Mrs. Dutton, 70, died of complications from diabetes at the same facility.
The married couple were former longtime Columbia residents.
“She was in Room 1 and he was in Room 3,” said a niece, Marie Patterson, of Hampden. “She died several hours later.”
Born in Greensboro, North Carolina, Charles Edward Dutton was the son of Aaron Dutton Sr., a professor at Dillard University, the oldest historically Black college or university in Louisiana, and Annabelle Taylor Dutton, the last principal of Gilbert Academy, a prep school for African Americans, in New Orleans.
Raised in New Orleans, Mr. Dutton was a graduate of Walter L. Cohen High School and began his college studies at Dillard University in New Orleans, and then transferred to the Johns Hopkins University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1968 in electrical engineering and was a member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity. He later obtained a master’s degree in engineering from Howard University.
“We were at Hopkins together and I’ve known him for more than 50 years,” said Matthew Blanding Jr., who retired from what is today the Defense Information Systems Agency. “He was a very fine person, considerate of others and compassionate. He was a person you felt totally confident talking to about anything and you knew it would go no further.”
Mr. Dutton, who worked for the NSA for more than four decades, held many high-level positions with the agency, including division chief of processing architecture, senior electronics engineer of spaceborne planning and technical director of various branches.
During his work with the agency, he held a top-secret clearance and was a certified cryptologic engineer.
“He really couldn’t speak about his work,” Ms. Patterson said. “He’d say, ‘I can neither confirm nor deny anything.'”
“He was highly respected in his field,” Mr. Blanding said.
Mr. Dutton was also a visiting professor at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and an adjunct professor at the University of the District of Columbia, where he taught electrical engineering, circuits and electronics.
Mr. Dutton was a lifetime member of the National Organization of Blacks In Government.
He retired from the NSA in 2009, and with his wife moved to Marietta to be close to their only child and grandchildren.
Mr. Dutton was gifted with a “super sharp wit,” his niece said, and “loved sharing his Dad jokes with anyone who’d listen.”
He was an avid reader, enjoyed playing cards and doing puzzles, and liked dining on one of his favorite dishes, Maryland steamed crabs.
The former Margaret Rose Schissler, daughter of Charles Schissler, who worked in the advertising department of the old News American, and Hazel Anna Moore Schissler, a homemaker, was born in Baltimore and raised in Woodlawn.
She was a graduate of Woodlawn High School, where she was a member of the pompom team.
In 1974, she married Mr. Dutton and they settled in Columbia, where for decades she operated a day care center out of their home.
“They met in Baltimore and because they were an interracial couple faced all kinds of turmoil at the time and both families had concerns,” said a niece, Renarda Porter, of New Orleans. “My uncle loved her, and once we all saw how much he loved her, it made everything better. He named her ‘Peaches’ because she was so sweet.”
They had a daughter, Marla Rae Howard.
“Charles was a true girl-dad. The sun and moon rose and set in his daughter’s eyes,” according to a biographical sketch submitted by the couple’s family
Ms. Howard died in 2020, and “after her passing, he would bring flowers to her grave after church every Sunday that he could,” according to the biography.
Mrs. Dutton was known for her oatmeal raisin cookies. Christmas was her favorite time of the year, family members said, which included setting up model trains, a tradition that her father started when she was a child.
She shared her husband’s love of steamed crabs and enjoyed spending summers in Ocean City and camping.
Family members were able to arrange for the couple’s beds at the hospice to be brought together for a visit which allowed them to face each other and hold hands.
“They hadn’t seen each other for a month,” Ms. Porter said.
“Charles and Peaches enjoyed their time together and were months away from their 50th wedding anniversary” according to the biographical sketch. “Their great love story endured many trials and tribulations. They took their eternal rest on the same day only hours apart.”
The Duttons were members of Sixes United Methodist Church at 8385 Bells Ferry Road in Canton, Georgia, where funeral services for the couple will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday. They will be interred together in the church cemetery next to their daughter.
In addition to their niece Ms. Patterson, the Duttons are survived by three granddaughters, Taylor Howard, Olivia Howard and Blakely Howard, all of Marietta; two nephews; and five other nieces. Mrs. Dutton is survived by a sister, Pauline Dell’ Uomo, of Bel Air.
