Daniel "Dan" Craven

Daniel “Dan” Craven passed away on August 15th, 2018 in Portland, Oregon after doing what he loved - playing a round of golf.   Dan grew up in Clarkston, Michigan, the oldest of four children, son of John and Evelyn Craven.  While growing up, Dan spent countless hours hunting, fishing, camping and water skiing.  He grew up with a great love of the outdoors and a passion for sports.  He was the typical Michigan boy.  Dan loved being a big brother to his two closest siblings, Darlene and John, and they adored their larger than life brother Dan.

Dan graduated from Clarkston High School in 1964, where he played varsity football, basketball and baseball.  Dan attended college at Michigan State were he played basketball for the Spartans and was a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity.  He graduated in 1968 with a degree in packaging engineering. 

After graduation, he moved to Southern California to work for McDonnell Douglas where he worked on the logistics team for the spartan missile project.  Dan got married in 1970, and in 1971 his son John Chadwick, better know as Chad, was born.  In 1975 Dan and family moved to the San Francisco Bay area where he started a long and successful career in the pallet and lumber business.  He would become a partner in Keene Pallet and Lumber Company.  Dan grew the business into one of the largest pallet and wholesale lumber companies in Northern California. 

Dan was always good with his hands and enthusiastic about tackling new projects in his spare time.  At one point he decided to build his own house.  Eight years and countless blisters later he had completed a beautiful home for his family.   

In between work, building a house and coaching his son's baseball team, he continued to follow his passions of hunting, fishing and sports.  Dan traded in his basketball shoes for golf shoes and traded in his 22 rabbit rifle for a duck hunting shotgun.  In 1979 Dan was invited to join a small duck hunting club.  The small group of men who made up the Sutter Buttes Boys Hunting Club would become more than lifelong friends, for Dan they would become part of his family. 

In 2002, Dan retired and moved to Portland, Oregon with his life partner Leslie Hursfall.  For the next 16 years, they would call Oregon home.  In Portland, Dan became known as the golfer to beat or if you were smart enough - the golfer to have on your team in a tournament.

Dan is preceded in death by this parents John and Evelyn Craven and youngest sibling Jennifer-Lynne and a long list of old and loyal hunting dogs. 

Dan is survived by life partner, Leslie Hursfall, son Chad Craven whom he shared with former spouse Betty-Ann Craven, sister Darlene Malek and husband John Malek, brother John Craven and wife Susan Craven, sister Sue Lanpher and husband Dan Lanpher and grandchildren Grace and Carter Craven and Berit, Brayden, Sophia and Mateas Methven and “the old men” of the Sutters Buttes Boys Club.

Visitation will start at 11:30am followed by a service at 12:30pm Friday August 24, 2018 at Lewis E. Wint and Son Funeral Home, 5929 S. Main St, Clarkston, MI 48346.  A celebration of life will follow at The Fountains, 6060 Maybee Rd, Clarkston, MI 48346.

For friends and family in the Portland area, there will be a celebration of life on September 14, 2018 at 5:30pm at Arrowhead Golf Club, 28301 Cascade Hwy, Molalla, OR 97038.