Anchorage resident DANIEL E. REGAN JR., 49, died of a pulmonary embolism Aug. 2, 2002, in Naknek. A service of remembrance will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday at Evergreen Memorial Chapel, 737 E St., Anchorage. Mr. Regan was born Nov. 25, 1952, in Fairbanks. He later moved to Anchorage with his family and graduated from West High School. He held an associate's degree in aircraft mechanics and was a flight instructor. He was a member of Ironworkers Local 751 and worked as a foreman on the Upper Chena Bridge and the Key Bank building in Fairbanks. He spent the past 19 years as a fisherman in Bristol Bay.
His family wrote: "Dan was deeply loved and highly respected by his family and peers. He was a confounding mix of characteristics that made you look beyond the introduction, into the blue eyes, to meet the spirit of the man. Dan was organized and particular to the last detail. He was precise and demanded perfection of himself and others. Yet Dan's focused attention was punctuated by large blasts of generosity and wide-open goodness. He was always there for his friends and refused them nothing. He asked nothing in return.
"Dan was a big guy so his ability to become small again for children and stray cats was always a surprise. Dan's heart and his laughter were as big as he was. He could capture a room with the stories of his fishing and flying adventures. He had a story or a saying for every occasion -- most of which can't be printed here.
"Dan never let being new at something stop him from doing it. He wanted to fly. He wanted to fish. He wanted to build a plane -- and so he did. Dan met people easily and "picked brains" with as much "finesse" as he picked fish. He asked questions until he knew enough to get started and then he tinkered, tested, read and asked more questions until he became the one whom others asked to teach them. And he always did. Dan was as generous with information as he was with his possessions.
"Dan will be sorely missed and long remembered by those whose hearts he touched."
His father, Daniel E. Regan Sr., and his brother, Peter G. Regan, survive him.