Dan Fine
Dan Fine was one of the most memorable people you could ever meet. He warmed up the room the second he walked in, and loved to engage with every single person there. He could get anyone to smile and laugh, no matter how shy, similar or different from him they were. He had friends in every corner of the world, and he enjoyed creating connections between the people he knew. He was an expert story teller and people loved to listen, even if they had already heard the story before. Most of them were true, though some would be an elaborate joke with an unexpected punchline.
Dan was born in Detroit, Michigan. He was the middle of three boys and had two sisters who joined his family when he was a teenager. He attended Washington State University where he met some of his best lifelong friends. Dan never missed an opportunity to wave his Cougar flag or say “Go Cougs!” He met his wife Kim commuting on a bus from New Jersey to New York City. They fell in love and moved to Seattle, the place he considered to be the most beautiful in the country. After raising their two daughters, they made a decision to relocate to British Columbia, and made Vancouver their home.
Dan was an entrepreneur, unafraid to boldly take risks, but always with a thorough plan. He was a self-made businessman, owing his successes to his innovative spirit, hard work, and magnetic personality. Dan founded and led multiple successful companies, including fine.com, one of the first “dot-com” companies. His innovation in intelligent software agents positioned him decades ahead of his time in the evolution of AI-driven systems. Over the course of his career, Dan received numerous honors, including Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and the U.S. SBA Small Business Person of the Year Award.
Inspired by the benevolence of Superman, Dan was consistently compelled to leave the world a better place and help those in need. For decades, he and his beloved dogs Clark and Kal-El volunteered as therapy teams, bringing joy to first responders, seniors, and children learning to read at libraries. He also provided volunteer service to various organizations such as PAWS, Take A Hike Foundation, and Paws with Cause. Dan founded the Ukrainian War Animals Relief Fund (UWARF), a nonprofit dedicated to rescuing and treating animals impacted by the war. He bravely went to war zones in Ukraine multiple times to help coordinate animal rescue and vaccination efforts with the money he fundraised. He was also the Executive Producer of the award-winning film War Tails, a documentary that draws awareness to this cause.
Most importantly, Dan was a devoted and dearly beloved husband, father, grandfather, and friend. Despite the demands and pressures of running his companies, he came home every day with a smile, ready to make his family laugh. He shared a joyful marriage of forty years with Kim, living life to the fullest. He couldn’t be prouder of his daughters, Elizabeth and Sarah, his son-in-law Ryan, and loved being a grandfather to his grandson, Ezra.
Dan faced life’s hardest chapters the way he lived the rest of it: finding the humor and hope in it all. He refused to be defined by limitations, remaining deeply involved in the causes he cared about and selflessly caring for the people he loved.
He leaves behind a world made better by him.
Donations in Dan’s honor can be made to BC Cancer Foundation at http://donate.bccancerfoundation.com/goto/danfine
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