Milton Melton

Milton Dion Melton, age 75, longtime resident of Austin died Thursday, December 17, 2015. He was born August 9, 1940 to Rex and Zanita Marable Melton in Grand Prairie, Texas. The family moved to Plainview, Texas, in 1947, where they were members of the First Presbyterian Church. Dion graduated from Plainview High School in 1958, where he was in the FFA and raised champion sheep. He enrolled at Texas A&M University the same year. He enlisted in the Air Force in 1961 and was the only candidate in Texas to attain a perfect score on every Air Force test. In 1962, he married Laura Bindock of Leakey, Texas, and they moved to Montgomery, Alabama, where he was stationed at Maxwell Air Force Base. Because of his test scores, he was placed in a computer program and learned data processing while in the Air Force. He was honorably discharged and re-enrolled into Texas A&M in 1965 to continue studying computers. After graduating with a degree in Mathematics, he and his wife moved to Austin, where he enrolled at the University of Texas. In 1969, he began his career with the Texas State Department of Health. There, he developed the first terminal-based online computer information system in Texas State government in 1972. In the meantime, he also earned his pilot's license in 1970. From UT, he graduated with a degree in English with a minor in Computer Science in 1971. In November 1976, he and Laura divorced but remained close lifelong friends and co-parents. He continued his work at state agencies and began working at the Texas Comptroller's Office in the 1980s. He was on a team responsible for Texas being the first state to provide electronic tax filing for large businesses. In 1994, he later received an award for his accomplishment of a kiosk project for the Comptroller and for being one of the first to move to a client server based system. He married Margaret Howard in 2008. They attended Central Presbyterian Church in Austin.

A lifelong learner, he also earned a degree in Radio-TV-Film from UT in 1976 and an Associate of Arts degree in Photo Technology from Austin Community College in 1980. He did freelance photography as a hobby and eventually as a side vocation. Also, a lifelong teacher, he taught photography in Abilene in 1985 and computer classes at Austin Community College for several years.

He enjoyed hunting, sailing, and especially traveling, including motorcycling in Mexico in the 1970s and 1990s, rafting the Big Bend Rio Grande canyons, visiting Europe in 1987, earning a SCUBA certificate in 1990 and cruising the Caribbean, hang-gliding in the Valle Bravo in 1997, and cruising through the Panama Canal in 2014. He also loved to dance - he was a square dance master and a member of the Austin Ballroom Dancers.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Rex Melton, and Johnnie and Zanita Maberry. Dion is survived by his wife Margaret; son Clay (Stephanie King) Melton of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; daughter Melissa Vanessah (Jonathan) Pace of Austin; two grandchildren, Sophia and Stella Melton; and several other loving relatives. A relaxed come and go Celebration of Life is scheduled on January 31, 2016 from 1-4 p.m. at the Zilker ClubHouse, 200 Zilker Clubhouse Road, Austin, Texas. Arrangements are under the direction of All Faiths Funeral Services. In lieu of flowers, memorials in honor of Dion may be directed to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society at https://donate.lls.org/lls/donate.