Samuel Frederick “Sam” Slabaugh, 69, of Delmar, died on Friday, March 4, 2022, as he lived — on his own terms in the midst of an adventure — while swimming at the remote surf beach at El Paredon, Guatemala.

The incorrigible third child of two former Amish people, the late Fred and Barbara Slabaugh, he grew up skinny-dipping in the Jamestown River of Williamsburg, Va., and hand-hoeing acres of beans and watermelons in lower Delaware when his parents started truck farming.

He graduated from Delmar High School with dozens of football-related concussions. He spent four years at the University of Delaware, ostensibly studying American history while actually protesting the Vietnam War by chaining himself to the steps of the courthouse.

He traveled the country welding, bar-tending and worrying his mother, settling in West Virginia where he became a father to Iva Singh (46), Eric Allen (42), Laura Dye (40) and Joy Slabaugh (39).

He moved back to Delaware in 1983 and became a father to Sarah Slabaugh (35) and Fred Slabaugh (33). 

He was a man with delusional optimism who believed that anything was possible, if you put your mind to it, and that laws were made to be broken, resulting in hundreds of speeding tickets across the country. He spent some years as a family restaurateur, bar owner, marijuana farmer, drug distributor to the better part of the East Coast, candle maker, wastewater treatment developer, construction worker, Certified Financial Planner, landlord, chicken farmer, truck driver, and was in the process of starting a monastery. 

He spent many years wrestling a unique relationship with God as he cut a path through the mennonite, charismatic, methodist and baptist churches of Delmarva, most recently finding a home at Manokin Presbyterian in Princess Anne and Greenwood Mennonite Church in Greenwood.

He spent his final years in retirement being the proudest grandfather to Alexander Singh (24), Lincoln Dye (10) and Lucy (7) Dye, and traveling the world having grand adventures.

If you’re reading this and live on the Eastern Shore of Delmarva, there is a chance you and Sam Slabaugh crossed paths in some way – maybe in court, drinking at a bar, bellowing at a hymn sing, tinkering with a tractor, dressed up as Santa Claus, passing out bibles with the Gideons, trying to arrest him, raising money with the Odd Fellows, practicing speeches at Toastmasters, or straddling his hog at Bike Week.

He was a man of contradictions and complications; he loved many in the best way he knew how, even when that love sometimes hurt. 

In addition to his children and grandchildren, he is survived by four siblings, Kathy Chupp, Grace Lambert, Chris Slabaugh and Pip Spicer; as well as Willie, his pet steer.

A memorial service will be held at 4 p.m., Thursday, March 17, 2022, at Gumboro Fire Hall on Millsboro Highway in Gumboro. Guests are also welcome to drop in at the fire hall from 5 to 7 p.m. to toast and celebrate him. 

Donations may be made in his honor to the Equal Justice Initiative (support.EJI.org). Memories may be shared at samslabaughmemorial@gmail.com.