Dayton wrote the poem below 16 years ago in celebration of someone else turning 90, but it now applies to himself and the seven other “90 plussers” of this congregation we want to honor…..

A Happy 90th Birthday!

The Lord has granted you three score and ten,

Then He added another decade and did it again!

Your years have grown up to ninety by God’s grace;

Among the masses of men you’ve had your place!

A simple life for you has been lovingly granted—

Good deeds you have done and things you have planted

All blend with the principles you hold in your heart,

Offering goodwill to kith and kin with whom you had a part.

Your kind smile and gracious behavior—

The spirit you’ve built as you honored your Savior—

The “little things” that have made you  a good neighbor

Are tributes we salute and memories we savor!

So as you cross the threshold of your 90th year,

These gratuitous line we want you to hear;

Your long life well lived leads us to gratefully say,

“We certainly wish for you a Happy 90th Birthday!”