Only today, when I sent you an email, did Marylou and I learn that you were no longer with Krause Publications and that you had passed on to the other side. Once we got over the shock of your passing I felt we needed to write you another email, to thank you for being a friend and for making us feel like a part of this special community. Although you’re no longer with us I’m sure you’ll receive this message.

I recall that at our first meeting we discovered that we were both Indiana boys. Sharing those boyhood stories about me wandering the fields with my .22 and you acquiring the beginnings of the encyclopedic knowledge of firearms that was uniquely yours forged the links of understanding that later lead to us working together.

Working with you was a pleasure. Your editorial advice was to the point and always supportive. I especially appreciated your open mind, the willingness to consider matters, even technical points, from another point of view. Although I lack your wide ranging knowledge of firearms, you respected my many years as a field man who lived with guns, and my personal points of view, which were often at variance from mainstream opinion. That meant a great deal to me in our professional relationship. Your personal support on a difficult project saved me from tearing out my hair, which is a good thing considering that I have none to spare. You were everything that any writer could ask for in an editor, and more.

The times that Marylou and I spent with you at a trade shows never seemed like work. We felt like we were just hanging out with an old friend. Your wry sense of humor, ability to see things from another perspective and to skewer the foolish provided us with much amusement.

You were a total professional and more importantly, a good man. Everyone here knows that. I’m sure that those who greet you on that distant shore will recognize your qualities and feel the same. Thanks for everything Dan. We’ll miss you.

Best wishes,

James Morgan Ayres
Marylou Ayres

I’m deeply saddened at Dan’s passing and am a better person for having known him.

Brian Lovett
Editor, Turkey & Turkey Hunting

Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.

Daniel E. Schmidt, Editor, Deer & Deer Hunting Magazine

Towards the end of his life, although he remained active and always on-the-go, he really was very ill, and as he forged ever onward, it was easy to forget that. A diabetic, he had already suffered at least one confirmed stroke and several heart attacks, as well as undergone bypass surgery before what was believed to be protracted bouts of pneumonia finally manifested itself as renal failure.

Our family had several scares due to his health, but he was quite lucky for a long time, and my father maintained a low level of kidney function for some time. He was able to avoid clinical dialysis until the last week of his life. I believe that now is he finally at peace.

I know that despite the increasing severity of his illnesses and the debilitating effect that they had on him, the great joy towards the end of my dad’s life was his position at Krause Publications and specifically, getting to work on Gun Digest, the Standard Catalog of Firearms, and many other fine publications he was proud to contribute to. Many of people have heard him recount how he and his brother, my Uncle Dave, pored over the latest edition of Gun Digest as children, hardly able to wait until they were able to collect all the guns they saw and learned about in those pages.

My dad’s life came full circle when he went from a wide-eyed boy thumbing through worn copies of the book over and over again, to overseeing the pristine pages of the latest edition and getting it ready to go to press. In short, I want to thank everyone at Krause Publications for the joy that my father’s position as editor of Gun Digest brought to his life. He died happy.

I grew up in a separate household where shooting was, to say the least, held to less than high regard, but the respect and affection he had for his colleagues bled down to me almost through osmosis, and I grew to hold those people- the people that have written touching anecdotes further up on this page- to an almost godlike standard. Even though I’ve only met a handful of his fellow writers and editors in person, it means so much and is such an honor to have them recount their memories about my father.

With dad, you could always tell when he was proud- he’d get this devious grin that try as I might in my spare time, I’ve not been able to replicate. Working with his friends doing what he loved ensured that this particular glint never left his eye. As he told me many times, editing Gun Digest was a dream come true.

Although he introduced himself as an “old fashioned gun guy,” I just knew him as dad. And no matter how we became acquainted, through his family, his music, or his writing, I know that everyone whose lives he touched will surely miss him for a long, long time.

Thank you all,

Ted Shideler

Rest in peace, Dan. We will all miss you!