Kathy Thompson sent me this picture. She thinks it was her junior prom in 1966. I would have been a freshman that year. Kathy was the one that Dan labeled as the one that got away. When he moved back to California he ran into her again along with Rosemary Farrow and others that he use to hang around with in his youth. It is those folk who probably know more about Dan at that period than I do. I was a stupid little kid and he was finding his way at College of the Sequoias.
He always thought that he wasn't good with girls. But as an adult almost all of his friends were female. He truly enjoyed the company of women and took of the cause of feminism as naturally as a duck to water. He was always lecturing me to follow my own way and not the way that society told me to go. When I told him I wanted to be a lawyer he told me that he would support me in what ever I wanted to do. I started to raze him about that line and he said (and I will never forget this) "I don't care if you sell yourself on a street corner if that is what you want to do. I might want to beat the s**t out of you but if that is what you want, I will support you in it. Don't ever forget that I am your biggest fan."
He was my fan and the fan of all of his friends. His loyalty was impeccable. If you lost his loyalty something really serious had happened. And you could be guaranteed that he had agonized over the decision to let go. To the day he died he still cared for Kathy. She was an old girlfriend but she was also a friend for life. Growing up in a small town that was not uncommon.
What is uncommon is that he inspired such feelings in others. I have heard, as I have said before, from people all over the United States who grew up with Dan or met him along the way. To a person they feel the deep loss of a dear friend-not just someone they knew- but a true friend. I was really blessed to have him in my life.
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