Daniel Van Gelder was born on April 17, 1937, and passed away May 7, 2025 of prostate cancer. He was 88. Dan grew up in southern New Jersey, and graduated from Collingswood High School. Shortly, thereafter, his family moved to Baltimore. Dan attended college at Antioch, spending a work/study semester building pipelines in Alaska, and a junior year abroad in the Netherlands. He received his Bachelor of Science from Antioch in 1961 and subsequently joined Vista, the domestic Peace Corps, where he worked with Apache and Navajo Indian tribes in the Southwest. Later he returned to Antioch University to achieve his Masters in Forensic Sciences. He bought a house in Catonsville and started his career as a forensic chemist for the Baltimore Police Department, where he remained until his retirement in 2002.

Dan loved outdoor sports. He was a competitive slalom racer and was known as "Racer Dan" while managing the racing group at Baltimore Ski Club. He left a closet full of trophies. He liked to travel and visited ski resorts all over the world. For a number of years he volunteered as ski instructor for the Paralympics.

Since he grew up spending many weekends on his dad's boat fishing on the Chesapeake Bay, Dan was very comfortable on the water. He was a good swimmer and an avid scuba diver and traveled to tropical islands to dive on the coral reefs. He learned to windsurf, and in the warmer weather he raced his windsurfer in local regattas.

After he retired, and when his legs got too old for skiing, Dan acquired some camping equipment and traveled around the country camping out and exploring the national parks.

Dan never married. He leaves a sister, Helen Van Gelder, and his girlfriend for many years, Christine Hollis, as well as numerous friends from his ski adventures.  We will miss him.