Daniel Dolcort Pearlman

1940 - 2025

Daniel Dolcort Pearlman
10/05/1940 - 03/16/2025
Consistently kind, patient, gentle, wise, warm, positive, thoughtful, caring, compassionate, insightful, humorous, tenacious, honorable, deeply committed to helping others, the best listener, with a great smile and a twinkle in his eye, are some of the words regularly used to describe Daniel Dolcort Pearlman, born October 5, 1940 in Stamford, Connecticut, and who took his last breath early in the morning of March 16, 2025, in his home in Berkeley, California.
Dan, known as Danny as a kid, was the son of Rabbi David and Beatrice Pearlman. He grew up in Stamford, spent many summers on Fire Island, and went to public school through junior high, graduating high school from the Brunswick School in Greenwich. As he would tell the story, his older sister Judy was very bright, and their mother worried that if he followed in her footsteps to the local public high school, he would be compared to her. One of only two Jewish students at Brunswick, he graduated second in his class, played football, and one year -- junior or senior is disputed -- was voted most popular student.
From 1958-62 Dan attended college at the University of Pennsylvania, starting off at the Wharton School of Business, before discovering he would much prefer to take classes from Penn's School of Liberal Arts, to which he transferred. After Penn Dan went to Columbia Law School from 1962-65. A seminal moment in Dan's life occurred in the spring of 1964, after interviewing with private law firms for a summer job, in which he found himself telling half-truths about his reasons for being there. "Why are you depressed? You're never depressed" his roommate asked him upon his return from the interviews, and then told him about an opportunity to spend the summer in Mississippi helping Blacks register to vote. This was Freedom Summer, in which Dan participated, and got himself beat up, arrested and put in jail. That summer would profoundly influence the rest of his life, and his future career as a public interest lawyer. It's also the period of his life that had him thinking of himself as a "young punk".
In 1965 Dan joined the Peace Corps where he taught law in Monrovia, Liberia for two years. Upon his return he got a job working for the Riot Commission, which indirectly led to his meeting his beloved wife/partner in all ways of 57 years, Lucinda Pratt Pearlman, the sister of a nun, who had also recently returned from a stint in the Peace Corps. The story of their meeting, whirlwind courtship, and barrier breaking love is one that will be passed down to the ages.
Together in 1973 Dan and Cinda, with their two year-old daughter Tanya, moved from the east to the west coast, where for 22 years Dan worked for the National Housing Law Project, and was a founding member of the Public Interest Law Project, developing and advocating for affordable housing. In 1975 Dan and Cinda's second daughter Leah was born, and they became a family of four. Dan always centered his family, and was a devoted and deeply loving husband, father, and grandfather.
A diplomatic communicator to his end, for the last years of Dan's professional life he worked for his own mediation business, Mediation and Consulting Services.
When not working, Dan was usually traveling somewhere in the world, with the whole family, or more often with his "Puppy" Cinda. "We're lucky" he would say, "We like each other's company" and would share how they avoided ever having a real fight by protecting an evening out together every week.
In addition to the many blessings of his life, Dan also suffered for decades with chronic and debilitating pain, which, with Cinda's great support, he did everything he possibly could to make better. Despite this true challenge, he never complained or felt sorry for himself; instead, he always acknowledged the relative good fortune of his health and well being. To his last days he was loving and tenacious, with an optimistic spirit. Some of his final words were "This was a good trip until I got sick, but I'm still glad we went on it."
Dan is survived by his wife Cinda Pearlman, daughters Natanya Pearlman and Leah Pearlman, son-in-laws Grant Reading and Feran Scott, grandchildren Ayla and Sachi Reading, niece Amy Wolfson, her husband Andy Futterman, their son Noah Futterman, as well as many other beloved family members, dear friends and his little dog Pierre.
Dan was known to often utter the phrase "And life goes on." We know that's what he's cheering us all on to do -- to live fully, with kindness and courage, and in the words of one of his Civil Rights heroes, John Lewis, to get into some "Good Trouble".