Dan grew up in Burbank, California.   His first goal was to be a career Army officer--he received a Congressional nomination to the U.S. Academy at West Point, but was medically disqualified.   Instead, he graduated from the University of Southern California, majoring in Journalism with an emphasis in business.

Shortly after, he joined forces with his father and created a manufacturing business, where he spent 32 years building a successful enterprise.  When he sold his interest in 2006, it had grown to 150 employees.

In the meantime, Dan married his wife Jackie in 1984--they have two children and four grandchildren.   They moved to Murrieta in 1990 and eventually built an estate home in La Cresta.

They sold their house in 2007 and moved to Spokane, Washington--but you just can't compete with Southern California weather, so they decided to return to Murrieta.