Allyn Dimock, 71
Allyn Dimock, 71, of Acton passed away peacefully after a brief illness on September 7, 2026.
Allyn was a computer scientist, as well as a music and dance enthusiast. Born on April 4, 1955, in Baltimore, he was the son of the late Dirck Lloyd Dimock and Anne Paton. He is survived by his beloved wife Margaret Keller Dimock; his sister Shea Dimock Lassiter and her husband Stephen; and brother Christopher Dimock and his wife Michaele, all of Cody, Wyoming. He is also beloved by many aunts and uncles, cousins, and nieces and nephews.
He grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, and graduated from Haverford College with a degree in math and music. After moving to Boston in 1977, he worked for several startups and larger companies as a software engineer. He then returned to academia to earn a doctorate at Harvard University in 2002, researching and developing programming languages and compilers, including work on the Church Project. He taught computer science at UMass Lowell for several years and worked as a researcher at MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Allyn finished his career at Akamai, focusing on internet infrastructure.
A longtime resident of Acton, Allyn was thoughtful, compassionate, and extraordinarily intelligent. He loved words — the more groan-worthy the pun, the bigger his smile. You could often find him meandering in local woods or as an avid hiker in the mountains of New Hampshire and Wyoming, where he spent many happy summers with his family. Allyn loved everything about the outdoors: rocks, fossils, plants, animals, stars, and beautiful landscapes. Whether rock hunting with family in the Big Horn basin or on safari in Botswana with Margaret watching young elephants trunk-wrestle, he was happiest in the natural world.
Allyn loved to work around his Acton homestead building wildflower gardens and reintroducing native plants to the land, and he was cheered to hear the frog chorus from the nearby pond as well as the owls calling at night. His love of the outdoors also found him volunteering at Garden in the Woods in Framingham, perpetuating native plants and habitat. From time to time he would bring home seeds or surplus plants for his gardens.
In retirement, he returned his focus to his longtime love of the guitar and singing, both taking lessons and participating in local group sings and open mics. Also a dance aficionado, he was founding member of Newtown Morris Men and a ballroom dance enthusiast. After a first date at a ballroom dance hall, he and Margaret continued to dance together through the years, adding Argentine tango to their repertoire.
Allyn and Margaret shared a love of travel and explored many corners of the world. A few months before passing, the pair shared the eternal memory of seeing the sky dance, viewing the Arctic aurora borealis.
A celebration of life ceremony is planned for Saturday, October 3, at 2 p.m. in the Acton Scout House, 74 Walden Street.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a gift in Allyn’s honor to Garden in the Woods.
Arrangements have been entrusted to Dee Funeral Home & Cremation Service of Acton. To share a memory or a condolence on Allyn’s tribute page, visit DeeFuneralHome.com.
