Daniel K. VanDorn

1930 - 2025

Daniel K. Van Dorn

White River Jct., VT - Daniel Kniering Van Dorn, 95, died Thursday, March 6, 2025, at The Village at White River Junction.

Dan was born February 2, 1930, in Orange, NJ, the son of Horace Bishop and Gertrude Kniering Van Dorn. He grew up in Maplewood, NJ, graduated from Columbia High School and later from Dartmouth College, Class of 1952. As a young man, he greatly enjoyed playing sports as well as fishing and canoeing in the Adirondacks. After serving in the occupation forces in Czecholslavakia and Germany from spring of 1953 until spring of 1956, he returned to Maplewood where he reunited and fell in love with a classmate from Columbia High School, Juliet Phillips Paddock. They were married August 3, 1957. The couple lived in the Bronx while Dan attended Columbia University Law School. After he graduated and began practicing as a trial lawyer, the couple settled in Short Hills, NJ, where they raised their family. Following his retirement in 2005, the couple moved to the Upper Valley to be closer to their children and grandchildren. When they arrived, they joined a vibrant Dartmouth Class of '52 community. Julie died in 2018. Dan moved to the Village at White River Junction in 2023 where he made more wonderful friends.

Dan leaves his three children: Margaret, Deborah and Daniel, eleven grandchildren, and 2 great-grandchildren. He was regularly available and accessible to his children and grandchildren with physical, emotional, and intellectual support. Their interests and pursuits were his. They loved him and had high regard for him. Daniel enjoyed following politics and reading Supreme Court decisions. He loved US National Parks and was a frequent contributor to the Sierra Club. He was also an avid New York Yankees fan. He will be remembered by all who knew him as a kind and generous man who respected all people.

Private burial services will be held in the Hillside Cemetery in Norwich. A memorial service will be held in the Miller Stage on the Fourth Floor of The Village at White River Jct. Monday, April 7th, 11 AM.

Condolences to Mr. Van Dorn's family may be offered in an online guestbook at www.knightfuneralhomes.com

Contributions in his memory may be made to the American Diabetes Association, P.O. Box 7023, Merrifield, VA 22116-7023 or at www.diabetes.org.