Daniel Joseph Cummins passed away on Monday, May 13th, 2024 from metastatic lung cancer. He was born December 2nd, 1950, to Joseph Arthur Cummins and Olive Viola Sackett in Brooklyn, NY. Raised in an Irish Catholic home, he was the oldest of four children. Throughout his youth Dan was an avid track and field competitor and enjoyed growing up in the city; he had many stories of shenanigans perpetrated on the subway with his younger brother and partner in crime, Dennis. Dan was a radical pacifist, preferring to support those in need. This led to him becoming a counselor for children housed at Mercy Home for Children in Brooklyn, where he met his wife Ann, an art student at a local college.
Although he graduated college with a degree in Sociology, Dan soon found his true love in woodworking after moving across the country to Denver and then Los Angeles. Dan built beautiful furniture and was well known for being able to identify wood species by sight and reckon to the 1/16th of an inch. He remodeled every home he ever lived in and built a well-loved cabin out in the woods with his daughters, to whom he imparted his love of nature and creating beautiful and functional things. After more moves and several incidents with a tablesaw. Dan settled into a project management position at Synsor in Everett, where he made many friends and connections he treasured.
Dan was a lover of books and small precious things. His walls were filled with poetry, philosophy, woodworking, art, and cookbooks galore. He never met a book he didn’t like, and his life was guided and enriched by the written word. Dan loved his pets, and though Mickey Blue Eyes (his snowshoe cat) preceded him across the rainbow bridge, his dog Beans and his cat Shelly are enriching the lives of his loved ones now.
Dan is survived by his sisters, Barbara (Peter) and Jeanne (Paul) and their children and grandchildren; his ex-wife Ann (Kevin); his daughter Briana (Ryan), and his daughter Eva (Brandon) and grandson Arthur.
A celebration of life will be held in Quilcene, WA, on August 18th, 2024. In memory of Dan, please support your local library.