Daniel Paul Byrnes

Daniel Paul Byrnes died on April 22, 2014. Dan was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada on Jan. 10, 1924. He was the fourth of six children of John and Helen Byrnes. His grandfather Patrick Valentine Byrnes had come up to Canada from New York in the late 19th century and created a large coal and gas company in Hamilton.

Raised in Canada, Dan was a quiet, shy and studious boy. His lifelong love of airplanes manifested itself early. At the age of 16, he became the youngest licensed pilot in the Province. He transferred to Georgetown Prep and at 16 started Georgetown University.

On Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941 Dan and his brother Pat were in Washington, DC at a Redskins game. At halftime, the public address system began ordering generals and admirals to report to duty. That night he and Pat joined a crowd of thousands outside the White House.

Because he wished to fly, he signed up for the Army ROTC. He was called up in 1943.

In 1944, fate took a hand in Los Angeles. Dan Byrnes had a stutter. In an Army hospital with flu but bravely chatting up a nurse, an army doctor walked by, heard him speaking and asked what branch of service he was in. When he said he was an air cadet, the doctor said, “Not anymore.”

Washed out of pilot training, Dan was given the choice of becoming a B-29 bottom-turret gunner or a radio operator. Choosing the latter, he was sent to the South Pacific.

Dan spent the rest of WWII off the coast of New Guinea as part of a small radio team. While not exactly a coast watcher, he had his share of adventures. Once he saw a U.S. fighter crash in the surf 50 yards offshore, upside down. A poor swimmer, Dan knew he must attempt a rescue. As he waded into the water, to his relief, the pilot popped up to the surface, casually gave him a wave and swam ashore.

Dan was mustered out in 1946 and returned to Georgetown. He graduated from the School of Foreign Service in 1947 and immediately went into Georgetown School of Law.

During these postwar years, Dan met Barbara Joan Binkley – “Bink” to all – also of Hamilton, Ontario. While it was love at first sight, the courtship was problematic. But love did conquer all, and they married in 1948. Dan and Bink had three children: Rebecca, Bryant and Binkley.

Dan graduated from Georgetown Law in 1950, and his first legal position was in the Navy’s Office of the General Counsel. In 1957 he accepted a job with North American Aviation in Los Angeles in its Office of the General Counsel. He moved the family to Pacific Palisades because it was reasonably cheap (go figure).

Dan worked with North American, which later became Rockwell, for 30 years, retiring in 1988. He then had a short but surprisingly gratifying second career as a professor at Pepperdine School of Law teaching space law.

Shortly after the death of Bink in 2005, Dan moved up to the San Francisco Bay Area to be closer to Rebecca and Bryant. Many of his friends and family last saw him on the dance floor at the wedding of his granddaughter Breen in September 2013.

If limited to describe Dan in one word, it would be “gentleman.”