Dan Sheridan died Dec 25, 2008 in San Francisco, CA after a long battle with Diabetes. He was 66 years old.

He was preceded in death by his parents and his brother, Terry. He is survived by his sister, Sharon (Gary) Hayward of Chinook, MT, his ex-wife Suzanne Marcoux of San Francisco, several nieces and nephews and many, many friends.

Dan was born in Minnesota on Dec 21, 1942 to Walter and Esther Johnson. When Dan was about seven years old, the family moved to Havre, MT.

Dan’s work ethic began when he was quite young. His lifelong friend, Jerry Mumm, recalls Dan delivering newspapers while wearing tennis shoes even during the cold Montana winters.

During Dan’s years at Havre High School he participated in intramural basketball and his enjoyment of athletics led to a stint as Sports editor for the Stampede, the school newspaper. Dan always gave credit to John Quanbeck, a Havre High School teacher, for giving him the support he needed to do well in school and beyond. Dan participated in speech and debate, was a National Honor Society member, and graduated in 1961.

Dan worked at various jobs to put himself through Northern Montana College where he continued to grow socially and academically and to develop his interests in school and politics.

Dan was Northern student body president during the school years of ’63-’64 and ’64-’65 and was active in and relished all aspects of Northern student life.

During his junior year, Dan booked a concert by rock and roll star Bobby Vinton, who is remembered by those who picked him up at the Great Falls airport as being extremely arrogant, but who put on an excellent concert with a Havre backup band. Dan’s major big name entertainment coup came during his senior year when he negotiated a concert by Peter, Paul, and Mary at the height of the trio’s popularity during the ‘60’s folk music revival. Somehow Dan discovered that PP&M had an open concert date and contacted their agent. In his enthusiasm at the prospect of having such a major group performing in the Armory Gym in Havre, Dan suggested to the agent that the Armory seated 5000 people and convinced him to accept a share of the gate receipts instead of a fixed sum of money for the concert. When the musicians arrived in Havre and discovered how small the Armory was they were disappointed, but performed anyway. It was reportedly the least amount they ever made at a concert during their heyday. Those of us that were there all agreed that it was a wonderful concert. We can thank Dan for working his magic.

Dan always spoke fondly of his years at Northern and told of the encouragement and inspiration he received from Northern’s instructors, and he talked of the important roles played by Harrison Lane, President Joe Crowley, and George and Ruth Williams in his academic success.

Dan would have done well at any university but he thrived in Northern’s small school atmosphere with its caring instructors. Dan graduated from NMC in 1965 with a degree in History and Social Studies.

In 1965 Dan hitchhiked to Minnesota where he attended Graduate school at the University of Minnesota., earning a doctorate in Urban Affairs. He also did some graduate work at Harvard.

Dan became Executive Director of the Minnesota Society of Architects. During this time he changed his name to Daniel J. Sheridan because there were “900 Dan Johnson, Daniel Johnsons, and D. Johnsons in the Minneapolis phone book” and business prospects and others who wanted to contact him couldn’t negotiate the maze of Johnsons. He always felt that the name change was a very good move professionally.

In 1980, Dan moved to San Francisco, CA. Among his several pursuits and professions he headed the San Francisco office of the American Institute of Architects, was Vice President with the real estate investment firm, Marcus and Millichap, and was a Vice President of Charter Commercial Brokerage.

Friends and family who visited Dan in San Francisco were usually treated to an incredible tour of the city’s architectural, historical, and cultural wonders led by Dan, an enthusiastic and wonderfully informed tour guide.

From his humble beginnings as a poor, awkward boy in Montana to his many successes in academia and business, Dan was a big hearted, larger than life character who worked hard, lived life fully, and laughed often.

Those who knew Dan remember him for his sense of humor, energy, enthusiasm, zest for life, intellect, and later his courage and sense of humor in facing the ravages of his illness.

Dan’s sister, Sharon found this E-mail message to Dan from a friend in Dan’s papers after he died and thought that it summed up Dan’s approach to life.

“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, completely used up, totally worn out, and screaming “Wow, what a ride!” ”