Dan grew up in a small farming town in Michigan and graduated from the University of Michigan (UofM) in 1983.  Dan taught physics and chemistry in both rural West Virginia and Michigan. Dan owned several tech companies and graduated with a post-graduate degree in cybersecurity.  Today, he is a full-time instructor at Blue Ridge Community College teaching computer science and cybersecurity courses.

 

Dan is a self-taught guitar, mandolin, and banjo player and began teaching guitar lessons through his school district’s Community Education program when he was only 14 years old.  His first real band was in college when he played in a bluegrass band.  Dan has also been playing and singing in churches since he was a junior in high school.  Today he attends Biltmore Church in Flat Rock, NC.

 

Dan and his wife, Joanne, moved to WNC in 2015.  Finding out through some genealogy work that he has an ancestor from Barnardsville in Buncombe County dating back to 1810 when asked why he moved to WNC, Dan tells them “I just came back home”.