Daniel Francis Morine, Jr.

July 27, 1932 — May 28, 2020

Surrounded by family, the anchor was hoisted and Dan peacefully passed into eternity at the beginning of a new day, on May 28, 2020. He was preceded in death by his parents, Daniel Francis Morine Sr. and Mildred J. Covell Morine; siblings Jack and Louise Morine (who died at birth), Barbara Jean Morine (at age 3), and brother, Lee Roy Morine (in 2015).

Surviving family include his wife of 66 years, Donna Louise Brown Morine; children, Dawn Smith, Kim Cooper (Dan), Daniel Francis Morine III “Joe” (Angie), Kitty Sandelin (Roe) and Tammy Martin; 18 grandchildren and 27 great-grandchildren. Also surviving are his sister, Mary Ellen Hale (Charlie); Debbie Morine, and numerous extended family members.

Dan was, born in Portola, Calif., on July 27, 1932. He was a go-ahead, roll-up-the-sleeves doer from the start. Upon the death of his grandfather, Dan, at six years old, was sent to Clearlake Oaks to live with Grandma Mary in order to help around the orchards. His first paying job was shooting crows out of the orchard. At age 12, Dan was given permission to drive Grandma to the store in her car.

Besides attending school and excelling in multiple sports, Dan loved animals and hunting. One summer break, Dan walked 12 miles every day to feed a man’s horses in trade for a horse of his own. He even took actor, Roy Rogers hunting, but they got skunked — literally! His wife, Donna recalls, “After that, every time Dan’s coat collar got wet, it smelled like skunk.”

Two weeks after high school graduation, Dan enlisted in the Navy and spent the next 20 years as a Seabee, rising to the rank of Equipment Master Chief (EQCM9), and he became an accomplished marksman.

In 1953, Dan married his high school sweetheart, Donna Brown, and they had five children among the numerous military moves. Dan was also deployed twice to the Philippines and once to Vietnam, where the Seabees built roads and landing strips.

Highlights of Dan’s military days included being stationed in Italy; the Navy worked with NATO and Dan was assigned to oversee the motor pool drivers. While stationed in San Diego, Dan honed his marksmanship skills, winning many military rifle matches.

In 1964, Dan was the first Navy man to win the National Service Rifle Championship at Camp Perry, Ohio. His record-breaking score placed him 12th in the President’s 100. Also in 1964, Dan started up and coached the first Navy Women’s Wave Rifle Team which went on to win numerous trophies of their own. One team of five Waves established a national rifle record of 939 bull’s-eyes out of 1,000. In 1965, Dan was on the firing team that won the Open Team and Service Team Championships and in the same year received his orders for Vietnam. While deployed, Dan wrote home, “Don’t send me gifts for Christmas, but please send toys for us to give to the local children.”

After Vietnam, faith became more important to Dan. He and Donna settled into the Lutheran Church and his involvement there became part of the family flow. At work in Camp Roberts, California, Dan spearheaded the Navy’s first sniper school, which trained specialty shooters for Delta Force on riverboats in Vietnam.

In 1970, Dan was transferred to Babbitt Army Base in Hawthorne, Nev., where he headed up another innovative rifle program called Instinctive Shooting for Jungle Warfare. Shooters were trained using BB guns, starting with large disks being thrown into the air and requiring quick responses — and those disks were steadily reduced in size down to the size of a dime.

Near the end of his military career, the Navy released Dan for three months to get established in work and ready a home for his family. He chose Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, as his parents had hunted here and had purchased property in the Bonanza Ranch area. After a formal retirement ceremony in 1971, the family moved to Coeur d’Alene, where the rest of Dan’s life was poured out in doing what he loved best: living on a ranch, working road construction, engaging in church and championing his family.

After operating a crane for Northwest Timber, and training and working as a farrier (horseshoer), Dan started his own road construction company and built logging roads in five northwest states. This was a family business, with Donna as the bookkeeper and all five kids starting off as grease monkeys and gophers. Dan created a stir with the Montana Forest Service when he put two of his daughters, as well as his son, on brush cats to clear a forest of trees diseased by beetle-rust. Dan was always looking for ways to get a job done more efficiently and was one of the first in the area to incorporate using a 235 Cat Excavator for multiple road-building tasks. His son, Joe, continued to work with him until Dan turned 82. Their last job together was driving dump trucks in North Dakota, however, Dan still had a motor grader at the house in order to help maintain the rural road they lived on.

Life was always full of living and doing; there was plenty of work as well as hunting, 4-H, youth group, farm life, and his faith. One of the verses Dan had underlined in his Bible underscores what he thought of family: “Old men are proud of their grandchildren, just as boys are proud of their fathers” (Proverbs 17:6). Dan loved to cheer on his grandchildren in their various sports, 4-H activities, and career choices (three grandsons and two sons-in-law chose to serve in the military). Dan especially enjoyed hugging and teasing his great-grandchildren.

Dan and Donna were members of Christ the King Lutheran Church for many years, when once again, the pioneer spirit in Dan led the couple to co-labor with Christ the King’s vision to plant a new church in Rathdrum. Before Shepherd of the Hills was even built, Dan and son-in-law, Steve Smith planted the huge cross that can still be seen at the Highway 53/41 intersection. This church has been a place where Dan and Donna have invested friendship, time, energy, ideas, service, and resources for many years.

The celebration of Dan’s life will be held at 11 a.m. on July 25, 2020, at Shepherd of the Hills.

In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that donations be sent to Hospice of North Idaho, Operation Smile, or Shepherd of the Hills Benevolent Fund.

His family wants all to know, “Dad has once again gone on before us, and because faith is our anchor, we know that we will follow him in death like we followed him in life.”