Leon Seymour, executive director of Friends of Fort Knox, died on Tuesday, May 29, 2018. He would have turned 65 on his birthday, May 31, 2018, according to an email from his daughter to me.
Leon with one of his grandkids.
Beginning as far back as 2007, Leon would ask me to the Fort Knox State Park every summer to give a few cryptozoology talks to the visitors. These Fort Knox CryptoWeekends became a tradition supported and encouraged by Leon.
Leon Seymour enjoyed the unusual, in the midst of the Scottish festivals and Civil War re-enactments. Cryptozoology was one interest of his. He had others.
In 2010, Leon was talking to television’s Ghost Hunters about visiting the Fort. In 2011, Leon’s work paid off, with a Ghost Hunters finding “unexplained activity” at Fort Knox.
In 2014, Leon told Fox WFVX Bangor, “Every weekend there’s a different event.”
Bangor Daily News announced the Paranormal Faire in 2017 with all the bells, whistles, and trumpets allowed. That was the power of Leon Seymour to get publicity for his events.
Leon would pick a special motif for each Halloween – starting that practice in the year he was hired, in August 1999. Called “Fright at the Fort,” in 2012, it was the zombie apocalypse, and 2013 saw an homage to the Black Plague. In 2014, the theme was “What’s Bugging You?”. Leon picked “Water Over The Damned” in 2015, “Out of this World” in 2016, “Fright at the Fort Goes Nuclear” in 2017. It will be a Stephen King themed Halloween in 2018, but it won’t be the same without Leon.
“Greater Bucksport community mourns loss of man who loved Halloween,” notes WABI, on May 29, 2018.
A man who became synonymous with the Halloween spirit in this area has passed away.
Leon Seymour has lost his battle with lung cancer.Seymour was on the board of the Bucksport Area Chamber of Commerce, but TV5 viewers are likely to remember him from his work leading the Friends of Fort Knox.
Each October Seymour would be more than happy to tell you all about that year’s Fright at the Fort theme…
Or anything else Fort Knox related for that matter.
Here are some views of Leon, in and out of costumes. He will be missed.
My deepest condolences to all who loved Leon Seymour, the king of Fort Knox State Park, the director of the Friends of Fort Knox, the curator of Fright at the Fort every Halloween, and a good friend of mine & Jenny’s. He passed away on Tuesday May 29, 2018. That’s Leon, in the Bigfoot outfit, who invaded my Cryptozoology talk at the Paranormal Faire at Fort Knox, July 26, 2016. The two ladies are Jenny’s aunts, Norma and Edna, who laughed and came to enjoy a day of strangeness. Leon made my day, as he had for thousands of others who visited Fort Knox.
[...] it off and missing out on the cryptozoological event of the year. Loren also informs us that A Friend of Cryptozoology Dies: Leon Seymour. Leon passed on Tuesday, May 29, 2018, just two days shy of his 65th birthday. The director of [...]