Daniel Joseph Wenz

Daniel Joseph Wenz was born in Paterson, New Jersey on June 22, 1933, to Dorothea Wenz and David Wenz. In 1940, the family moved to North Charleston, South Carolina. Both of Dan's parents worked in the Charleston Navy Yard during World War II and then moved back to New Jersey after Dan's baby sister, Jenny, was born in 1944.

Dan graduated from Eastside High School in Paterson, NJ in 1950. Dan attended university at Rutgers where he received his BS in Chemistry in 1954. Dan entered the U.S. Air Force in 1954 and was stationed at Ellington Air Force Base in Houston, TX for 10 months training as a navigator and was then stationed at Otis Air Force Base on Cape Cod, Massachusetts flying in RC121 AWACS Constellations as a navigator until 1958 after completing 2,000 hours of flying time. Dan joined Aero Clubs at Ellington, Otis and at Edgewood Arsenal in Edgewood, MD.

Dan met his beautiful wife to be Sandra Beryl Goodman in January of 1959. Dan fell in love hard and asked Sandy to become his wife while flying over New York City in a rented Light Plane in May of 1959. Sandy said "yes" and became his wife, his love and life-companion on September 6, 1959.

Dan and Sandy were blessed with three beautiful baby girls: Julie Lynn Wenz (now Ramirez) in 1961, Lori Michelle Wenz (now Turner) in 1962, and Robin Alison Wenz in 1964. Sandy and Dan always enjoyed visiting their daughters and their spouses and their eight grandchildren and one great grandchild: (Julie and Tony's children: Jordan, Jenna and Jared Ramirez; Lori and Dale's children: Nicole Turner, Kayla Turner ,Kristin Turner Thomas and Nick Thomas and their son Dustin Thomas; and Robin and her sons, David Krout and Jesse Krout).

Dan worked for several firms in NJ until 1964 when the family moved to Baltimore, MD after Dan accepted a position at The Martin Marietta Co. In 1966, Dan and Sandy moved their family into a brand-new house purchased on Chell Road in Joppatowne, MD. In 1968, Dan accepted a position at the Army's Edgewood Arsenal, part of the Aberdeen Proving Ground.

In 1975, Dan received an MS in Environmental Engineering from Johns Hopkins University. In 1994, Dan retired from the Army's Environmental Quality Office. Over the years Dan, with his wife Sandy, maintained small gardens growing various fruits and vegetables and had many fruit bearing trees . Dan enjoyed building beautiful Victorian Dollhouses for Sandy. Together they would shop for items to put into the dollhouse. Dan very much enjoyed flying flight simulators on his various computers and enjoyed RC vehicles.

Most of all, Dan loved spending time at Lori's home in Fallston with Sandy while spending time with all his grandchildren in one place, many times all 8 of them swimming in Lori and Dale's pool and devouring crabs on their picnic tables under the beautiful trees in Lori's backyard. Dan enjoyed traveling all over the world through the years with his beloved Sandy including many countries in Europe, various trips to different areas of China, Russia and cruising on large ships and river cruises to the Caribbean, Europe, and the United Kingdom.

Sadly, in February of 2018, Dan lost the love of his life, his life companion and loving wife of 58 years, his beloved Sandy after she predeceased him. Upon Sandy's passing, Dan moved in with his daughter Lori and her husband, Dale, to their home in Fallston where his son-in-law Dale Turner built him a beautiful suite to live and using his words he has written, felt "spoiled."

He was a brilliant man who brought laughter and light to everyone around him. We'll forever cherish his quick wit, his wonderfully quirky ways, and his unmistakable dry sense of humor. He was quite the humanitarian often donating to many organizations and charities.

Dad/Grandpa/Dan will be missed terribly but always will be remembered with love and fondness, and his memory will always be a blessing to all his family, both near and far.