Kasey Melton Gidlow

Kasey Melton Gidlow, 60, passed away on Friday, July 4th after a 2-year battle with breast cancer. She died peacefully at home, surrounded by her loving family.

Kasey was born on June 13th, 1965 in Rock Hill, South Carolina to parents Carl and Doris Melton. The youngest of 4 children, Kasey quickly learned how to hold her own among her siblings — the other “Ks” — Kim, Kyle, and Kerri. Her natural tenacity and competitive spirit made her a standout athlete from a young age. She excelled in basketball, softball, and tennis, and in 1983 was recruited to play Division 1 field hockey at Appalachian State University. Kasey went on to become a three-time All-NorPac Conference athlete and graduated in 1988 with a Bachelor of Science in Physical Education.

Upon completing her degree, Kasey moved to Colorado — fulfilling a lifelong dream — and began an accomplished career in outdoor sports retail that would span 20 years. For the last decade, Kasey was the store manager of The Mountain Goat outfitter in Manchester, Vermont. Kasey poured her heart into the job, not just professionally, but personally. Her colleagues and regulars will remember her ready smile and the genuine interest she took in everyone’s adventures.

Following her time in Summit County, Kasey started a family and embarked on several more big moves: to Australia, to West Virginia, and finally to southwestern Vermont. Although Kasey had a way of planting roots wherever she went, Vermont always felt like her truest home. She was an avid skier, hiker, and mountain biker, and loved to “earn her turns,” logging near-daily trips up Bromley Mountain on her skins, often at sunrise.

Kasey’s love of the outdoors was second only to the love she had for her family. She simply adored her family (the cats included). Nothing made Kasey happier than spending quality time with her relatives and honoring the love nurtured by her own mother and father.

Kasey also found immense joy in the quiet beauty of her backyard; it was, as her family called it, her Eden. A pair of mated Cardinals, a flock of Chickadees, a solitary Hermit Thrush: year after year, such was her view as these birds and more flocked to the feeders and wooded gardens Kasey so carefully tended.

Kasey is preceded in death by her husband, Rolf Gidlow, and her parents. She is survived by her son, Zachary Kinsella, and his wife, Kelsey Kinsella, of Dorset, VT; siblings Kim Lee (Scott) of Rock Hill, SC, Kyle Melton (Amy) of Charlotte, NC, and Kerri Hug (Michael) of Nashville, TN; grandson Arthur Kinsella; nieces Sadie Frost (Mychal), Amie Shillinglaw (Steven), Elizabeth Cochran (Seth), Cara McCoy (Brendan), Allison Gunter (Henry), Caroline Gibbons (Peter); nephews Colby Hallman and William Bond; and 18 grandnieces and nephews.

Services celebrating her life will be held on August 2nd at 10 AM at the Peru Congregational Church in Peru, Vermont, and on August 16th at 11 AM at Oakland Baptist Church in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Time for visitation with the family will follow both services.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Audubon Society. Contributions in Kasey’s honor will help protect birds and the habitats they need to thrive, continuing the legacy of care and stewardship that she embodied.