Dan C. Turrentine

Dan C. Turrentine Dan C. Turrentine, who retired as manager of the Wine Advisory Board at age 60 to start his own wine brokerage business, died Wednesday at his home in San Rafael. He was 98 years old. Turrentine is remembered in the California wine business for founding Turrentine Brokerage, which is located in Novato and employs 15 people including his son Bill and his grandson, Matt. Turrentine is also remembered for innovative promotions at the Wine Advisory Board, including six winemaker cookbooks which sold over a million copies. Prior to running the Wine Advisory Board, Turrentine joined the staff of the Wine Institute where he became assistant manager. He obtained rail rate reductions on wine and collaborated with the U.C. Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology to start an industry-wide program of certified vines that has provided generations of wine grape growers with superior plant materials. Turrentine was born in New York City. His mother died when he was six years and he was sent to live with relatives in New Orleans. He helped them run a boarding house and eventually worked his way through Tulane University. A fascinating year working as a tutor for the two sons of Robert Scripts, proprietor of the Scripps Howard Newspaper chain, helped him to launch a career as a newspaper reporter. His first newspaper job was for the El Paso Herald-Post but he was determined to make his way to San Francisco, the only city that he thought was comparable to New Orleans. He finally snagged a spot with the San Francisco News and later with the San Francisco Chronicle. He left the Chronicle to join the Wine Institute in 1941. After Pearl Harbor, he took a leave of absence and joined the U.S. Navel Reserve. By the end of the war, he had been promoted to Lieutenant Commander. He served aboard the aircraft carrier USS Independence as an administrative officer with Bombing Squadron 22. One week before the Independence was torpedoed, he was transferred with his squadron to the Island of Munda in order to participate in the attack on Rabaul, the hub of Japanese air power in the South Pacific. As U.S. forces tightened the noose around Rabaul, his air group was transferred first to the small section of Bougainville heroically captured and defended by U.S. Marines, and later to Green Island. He received a bronze star for service in this campaign. Eventually he was ordered stateside for a short break at the Naval Air Station, Seattle, where he met and married Barbara Ewart, now his widow, living in San Rafael. He is also survived by two sons, Dennis Turrentine of San Rafael and Bill Turrentine of Fairfax, and by five grandsons, Matt (and his wife Erin), Donal (and his wife Emma), Peter, Joseph and John. He was a member of the Unitarian Fellowship of Marin and for 33 years a member of the San Rafael Elk's Lodge. There will be a Memorial Mass at St. Rita Catholic Church in Fairfax on Saturday, September 30th, 2006 at 11:00 AM. There will be a Celebration of His Life on Sunday, October 29th, 2006 at 3:00 PM at the Unitarian Fellowship of Marin, 240 Channing Way, San Rafael. Donations in lieu of flowers may be made to Hospice of Marin Foundation, 17 E. Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Larkspur, CA 94939 or to Homeward Bound of Marin, 199 Greenfield Avenue, 2nd Floor, San Rafael, CA 94901-2622.