CAMBRIDGE, N.Y. – Ian Daley, whose varied career included roles as diverse as accountant, debate coach and television producer, died Tuesday, May 17, at his home in Cambridge after a long and courageous struggle with Huntington's disease. He was 64.

Daley was born Nov. 27, 1951, in East Orange, N.J., and in 1956 his family moved to Scranton, Pa. He graduated in 1969 from Scranton Central High School, where he earned a series of awards in speech and debate. In his junior year, his debate team won the Pennsylvania District championship of the National Forensic League.

After high school he moved to New York City to attend Columbia University, where he studied English literature as an undergraduate and, about a decade later, earned his master's degree in business administration.

While in college, Daley began working for a Metropolitan Museum of Art program that brought traveling exhibits to various New York City neighborhoods. He continued to work for the museum throughout the 1970s, for much of that time as its community programs coordinator.

Concurrent with his graduate studies in business, Daley worked for a time as an investment analyst monitoring the bankruptcy case of the Penn Central Railroad.

He became part owner of a brownstone on West 43rd Street in Manhattan, and in the process of renovating that building, he assembled and managed a construction crew that worked on a series of New York City apartment renovations during the early 1980s.

In the late 1980s, Daley returned to Pennsylvania, where he established an independent tax preparation and financial planning service in Scranton. He continued his practice until 2007, when his advancing illness left him unable to work.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he coached a series of high school and college debate teams in Scranton. Many of his students went on to careers in law, business, academia and medicine and considered him an influential mentor and friend.

Daley had a long-running interest in politics and public policy. He researched and wrote the script for the 1989 television documentary "Acid Rain: The Cost of Combustion," which won a statewide public television award as well as a national award that was presented in a White House ceremony.

Daley worked on several other documentaries produced at WVIA, the public television station for northeastern Pennsylvania, and for about two years in the early 1990s he produced "Both Sides Now," a monthly one-hour public affairs program on WVIA.

Daley had a lifelong love of classical music. He assembled a vast collection of recordings and delighted in discussing the merits or shortcomings of various performances of virtually any given piece in the classical repertoire.

He enjoyed film and was a particular fan of the work of Alfred Hitchcock.

He also was a train enthusiast who grew up riding the famous "Phoebe Snow" between Scranton and New Jersey and later traveled extensively by rail across North America and on visits to Europe in the 1970s and '80s.

When Huntington's disease made it impossible for him to continue living entirely on his own, Daley moved to upstate New York in 2009 to be near his brother. He made many new friends as a regular customer of the Country Gals Café in Cambridge and two other area restaurants, Burger Den and Benson's. He was a familiar figure around Cambridge in his knitted cap, khaki pants, button-down shirts and crew-neck sweaters.

Daley was preceded in death by his father, John E. Daley, in 1969, and by his beloved grandmother, Evelyn MacArthur, in 1990. He is survived by his mother, Elinor W. Daley of Greenfield Township, Pa., and by his brother, Fred Daley, sister-in-law Jenny Stern and nephew Isaac Daley, all of Hebron and Cambridge.

A memorial service will be held at 2:00 pm Saturday, September 17, 2016 at the Cambridge United Presbyterian Church, 81 East Main St., Cambridge with Rev. Kate Kotfila officiating.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Daley's memory may be made to the Huntington's Disease Society of America, in care of Marcella Junco, 7 Woodland Drive, Castleton, NY 12033.