Brent

Jeremy,

I'm so sorry to hear this awful news.  I think you know Dan meant a lot to me, he was a friend and mentor and we spent an awful lot of time together.  Please keep me posted on services, I'd really like to be there as he meant a great deal to me.  

I don't think I've ever known a less lazy person than Dan.  He was the personification of pride in his work, and every client he ever had knew it, that's why he was the "man who lights KC" for so many years.  Everybody who worked with Dan knows he had no tolerance for stupidity or laziness, and to me this is what made him the best kind of mentor.  Dan was one of those who would give you the tools you needed and some idea where we were headed and set you off and running.  But he sure wasn't going to hold your hand.  Dan always forced you to work things out on your own and hold your work to a higher standard than you were used to.  If you put in a half-ass effort and came back to him, he'd always put you right back to work until you got it right.  Heck, even if you worked really hard, you'd usually end up doing it again.  Nothing was ever "good enough" for Dan, it had to be perfect.  I think we've all had that moment setting up a show with Dan where, after a few hours, you start looking around, thinking "this looks pretty good, I think we're about done here" and then Dan would stay overnight tweaking every element and making it a whole lot more than "pretty good".  You often had to force Dan to stop once in a while to eat something or get a little sleep, as  these were things to which Dan gave very little creedence.  He really lived for his work.  Its very easy in our business to start approaching every show like its just another day and trying the same couple of tricks every day, but after all his years in lighting, Dan still came to every single show, no matter how big or small with new ideas to make it unique and exciting.  I find it very hard to imagine live events in our family and our city without Danny running around behind the scenes orchestrating it all.  He was a singular character that could never be replaced.  Its a good thing he taught so many of us young guys so much, now its up to all us of to  keep his spirit alive.

Best to everyone.  

Brent