More detail on this person: Dan Erwin ERWIN, Dan DAN ALAN ERWIN Memorial services celebrating the life of Daniel Alan Erwin will be held Saturday, August 23, 2008, at H.M. Patterson and Sons Funeral Home on Spring Street in Atlanta, Georgia. Visitation begins at 10 a.m., with a service following at 11 a.m. Dan died August 8, 2008 in a motorcycle accident in West Yellowstone, Montana while on a cross-country trip. A gifted motor sports journalist and photographer, Dan contributed articles to Bimmer, The Roundel, European Car, and Forza magazines. His stories were informative, clever and often humorous. He enjoyed restoring and racing cars, and instructing for drivers' schools. In addition to his passion for automobiles, motorcycles, photography, and writing, Dan was an accomplished athlete. During his lifetime, he ran in over 20 marathons, including Boston; participated in whitewater rafting competitions throughout the country, including the World Championships; and enjoyed on and off-road cycling. Prior to his career as a writer and photographer, Dan was an engineer at AT&T for over 30 years. He was a captain in the Army, serving as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam in 1970. He graduated from Stranahan High School, Fort Lauderdale, FL, in 1963, and from Florida International University, Miami, FL, in 1978. Dan leaves behind his wife Amy Pudvin Erwin and son, Max Daniel Erwin, as well as three children from a prior marriage: Jon Daniel Erwin, Dacula, GA; Laura Erwin Tabilo, Loganville, GA; and Steve Erwin, Seneca, S.C. He has four beautiful grandchildren, and two brothers, Timothy Coates Erwin and Gregory Bell Erwin, both from Florida. He was preceded in death by his father, Alan Dale Erwin, and his mother, Juanita Rose Coates Erwin. In lieu of flowers, please consider contributing to either the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society or The Conservation Fund. ATLANTA: Dan Erwin, sped to live each day gladly, robustly By HOLLY CRENSHAW When Dan Erwin fell in love with motorcycles, he fell in love for life.Their roaring engines, sleek design --- everything about them captured his imagination.Mr. Erwin raced motorcycles in his younger days and served as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam. His wife, Amy Pudvin Erwin, of Atlanta, said his time in Vietnam may have shaped his "live for today" attitude."I suspect it influenced his desire to make the most of every day and really enjoy life to the fullest," she said, "because there are no guarantees."Daniel Alan Erwin, 63, of Atlanta died Aug. 8 in a motorcycle accident in West Yellowstone, Mont., while riding across the country. The memorial service is 11 a.m. today at H.M. Patterson & Son, Spring Hill."Dan had always wanted to do a cross-country trip," his wife said. He left Atlanta, roared across Texas, connected with friends in Colorado and was planning to meet an old friend in Montana."He never made it there," she said.Mr. Erwin's life was shaped by his love of cars, motorcycles, sports and the outdoors. After their marriage 20 years ago, his wife said, "he brought all that to me, that zest for living and a little bit of danger."The couple biked across Italy and traveled through Ireland and Ecuador. They went biking, rock-climbing and canoeing together.Mr. Erwin won white-water rafting competitions and ran more than 20 marathons, including the legendary one in Boston.He collected guitars and taught himself to finger-pick acoustic blues songs by Robert Johnson.He could spot a piece of junk by the side of the road in his Morningside neighborhood and turn it into a beautifully restored antique."Dan could fix anything in a few second that others had worked hours on," said his neighbor Dr. Tom Schmitt of Atlanta."He had so many genuine enthusiasms and a curiosity and appreciation for so many things," he said. "But even though he was so incredibly passionate, he was very uncritical of people and tended to just let it be."After Mr. Erwin retired in 1999 from AT&T after 30 years as an engineer, he combined two of his enthusiams --- cars and writing. His freelance articles were published in Bimmer, Roundel, European Car, Forza and other automotive magazines.Over his lifetime, he owned more than 100 cars, usually a dozen or so at a time in various states of disrepair. Nothing made him happier, his wife said, than to bring them back to life.In one of his articles, he chronicled the adventures of "Crusty," a shockingly ugly BMW 2002 that he miraculously patched together and drove from Atlanta to a BMW convention in Keystone, Colo.He described salvaging it from an overgrown field, then wrote, "When I got it home, I found that everything not left behind in the field was rotten ... the floorpan on the driver's side was a Flintstone special, and the windshield, well, there was no windshield.""Dan had such a great sense of humor, and you couldn't get him mad," his wife said. "He was a very upbeat person with a wonderful outlook on life. He believed very much in the carpe diem philosophy of life."Survivors other than his wife include three sons: Max Daniel Erwin of Atlanta, Jon Daniel Erwin of Dacula, and Steve Erwin of Seneca, S.C.; a daughter, Laura Erwin Tabilo, of Loganville; two brothers, Timothy Coates Erwin of Zolfo Springs, Fla., and Gregory Bell Erwin of Fort Myers, Fla.; and four grandchildren.
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