Fr Dan was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on April 8, 1907. He attended the minor seminary at St. Meinrad and entered the novitiate there in 1927. He professed solemn vows in 1931 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1933. He taught elocution and Latin for one year after his ordination. Then he was assigned to St. Paul's Indian Mission at Marty, South Dakota. The greater part of his priesthood was spent on reservations in North and South Dakota. He was always a "field man" attending to the pastoral needs of the people. For three years he was assigned to Blue Cloud. Fr Dan referred to this period of his life as "my incarceration." When he assisted in parishes of the diocese on weekends, he asked the people to pray for his deliverance from Blue Cloud. Eventually, these prayers were answered. He returned to the field. His last assignment outside the monastery was at St. Michael's on the Ft. Totten Reservation in North Dakota.

Fr Dan mastered the Dakota language well enough to edit a paper and compile a hymnal. His Dakota Hymnal has been used for many years. A week before his death, Fr Dan attended the Catholic Sioux Indian Congress on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. He was known as "Dan, the Congress Man" because of his faithful attendance at this annual event. His Indian name was Zicha Tamaheca which means Lean Squirrel.

In recent years, Fr Dan had fewer responsibilities on the reservations, but in no way did he consider himself retired. It came as a surprise to him when he was called back to the abbey at the age of 88. Although he was unsteady on his feet, he got to where he wanted to go and pursued his interests: carpentry, photography and swimming. He liked watching nature programs on TV, and no one disturbed him when he fell asleep with the remote control in his hand.

Fr Dan came home to the abbey soon after an incident which earned him fame. On a windy day, while crossing the narrows on his way to town from the reservation, he slid into Devils Lake and had to be rescued from his submerged car. "I was only trying to get a closer look at the waves," he said. Water was also involved when Fr Dan was called to his eternal home. He died of a heart attack in the Jacuzzi.

We ask the members of the Swiss-American Congregation, other Benedictines and friends to remember Fr Daniel in their prayers. His funeral and burial were on June 29, 1998.