Obituary of Leslie Alton Sutton
Our beautiful beloved father, grandfather, brother, and uncle, Leslie Alton Sutton, passed away on Friday, September 12, 2025, after a brief illness. He was 92 years old and was born in Stamford, Connecticut on April 19, 1933 to his parents the late Leslie Bishop Sutton, and Harriet Chichester Sutton. He was a resident of Mendham, NJ for 53 years.
Leslie was married to his beloved wife, Arden Patricia Sutton, (who passed away in 2022), for 55 years, and is survived by his son James Sutton and daughter-in-law Candace Lynn Sutton (Adams), his grandson Travis Sutton, his grandaughter Mary Itter, and grandaughter Laura Sutton. He is also survived by his dear sisters, Margery Taft of Canada, and sister Beverly Preusser of Connecticut, and his nieces, Karen, Beverly & husband Fred, and Charlene.
Leslie grew up in Stamford, Connecticut and later went on to the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut, and (NYU) New York University to graduate with a Law Degree. He also served in the Korean War, and while overseas there also taught the English Language. He became an Attorney, and him and his young beautiful bride, Arden, both lived and worked in New York City. Leslie and his wife, Arden, often spoke about and told us stories about how much fun, and how exciting and vibrant it was, living in their first apartment in New York City, near the South Street Sea Port area, where their son, also Leslie, was born. On a day trip to New York City they took their family for a walk past their old neighborhood. They decided to leave the city life and moved out to the beautiful country to buy their first home in the quaint town of Mendham, NJ to raise their son, James. At this point, Les, received the Senior Claims Law Designation from the American Education Institute, where he also worked as an Executive for 16 years in relation to property and casualty law and insurance. Later he helped founded and was the Director of the Weichert School of Business, and after that worked for and was the President and Director of the prestigious Bankmark School of Business. Eventually, Leslie decided to go out on his own and for the rest of his life he ran the Sutton School of Business and Sutton School of Insurance. Leslie taught insurance related and many other business courses at Fairleigh Dickinson University, and lectured at Seton Hall University during his later years. Leslie loved being a teacher and got great joy from helping and interacting with his many students. And loved learning about the different nationalities and culture of his many different students during planned International Student Dinner nights. He loved being a teacher so much, that even at 89 years old, Leslie, was still teaching students, courses to get their insurance licenses, from his dining room table at his home. Leslie had a deep love and fondness for his mother and father, Leslie and Harriet, and spoke very highly of them and talked a lot about the many beautiful family memories he had with them while growing up. Leslie often talked about how important it was to take long walks with your loved ones to help to create a close bond and friendship. In the last years of his life, Leslie talked nonstop about how much he cherished the long walks he took with his father, and the strong bond that created between the two of them. The walks seemed to be one of his most favorite memories of his father and him together. Leslie loved and was very devoted to his sweet wife and family. He looked forward to taking family trips with his children and grandchildren. He loved to tell stories about his students and his work, his family experiences growing up, and many, many funny outlandish jokes. As a sweet, funny little family inside joke, Leslie loved to talk about “Statistics” on many, many subjects. Statistics about baseball, and Statistics about every kind of subject imaginable. In his prime, he loved working in his very large vegetable garden to harvest vegetables for his wife to cook, and was the coach for many local youth sports teams with his son. Leslie always loved to stay fit and continued to into his very old age by going to the local YMCA everyday to work out, and to also take exercise classes in the pool, which he very much enjoyed during his later years. Leslie was a devoted Yankees Baseball Fan, and loved watching and following the games on TV, and enjoyed going to see them play in person. Leslie was always wearing his Yankees baseball cap. Leslie loved to read about history, and also liked to take day trips into New York City with his wife and family, to just walk around, and to also see shows and visit museums during those visits. Leslie was a devoted Christian and was a member of the United Methodist Church, in Morristown, NJ, which he was active in, and throughout his life devotedly went to church every Sunday with his beautiful wife, Arden.
You couldn’t help but smile when you were around Leslie.
Leslie’s laughter, charm, faith, funny sense of humor, emanating joy, wise advice and expertise on many of life’s subjects and meanings in his conversations, will be deeply missed by his family, and all that knew him. Leslie was a very sweet man, and will be so missed. In our hearts his memories will always stay with us, and we know that he has now entered a beautiful, joyous, and wondrous place in Heaven full of light, awe, beauty, and pure love, with his beautiful wife, Arden, relatives and past loved ones. We will miss you, and love you, Leslie.
At this time, Leslie’s two remaining relatives, his beloved sisters and family, are both in their 90’s and live in other states, and Canada. So at this time we have decided not to have an official service right now. There will be a private family dinner held with his loved ones and immediate family to Honor and Celebrate Leslie’s Beautiful Life.
