Dan died in the home he built on January 1, 2021, at the age of 91.He was born in Wallace, Idaho, on July 29, 1929. He was the son of famous backcountry pilot Penn Stohr. Dan grew up with airplanes in his blood. As a boy, Dan would fly with his father throughout the mountains of Idaho and Montana. By the age of 18, Dan owned his own J-3 Piper Cub. He served in the U.S. Naval Reserves during the Korean War and was a smokejumper based in Missoula, MT, for the 1953 season. Dan graduated from the University of Montana in 1955 with a degree in business.
Dan was married to his childhood sweetheart, Marian Barber Stohr, for almost 70 years.

Dan was a jack-of-all-trades. He built homes, stilts for his granddaughter, water wheels for his own amusement, and an actual wooden bridge for his great-granddaughter to use to safely cross his irrigation ditch. He was a longtime member of the Optimist Club and loved volunteering at Boise State football games, where he often did a little more football watching than actual volunteering. He also loved getting together with his fellow smokejumpers to swap stories.