DAN

Dan can surely stake claim
To honor, and glory, and fame

It would take days
To count all the ways

But first on the list is . . . his name

When someone Dan’s surname first sees
The words that he says are, “Help — please!”

To say Wasielewski
At first can be pesky

But practiced a bit, it’s a breeze

But those who can say it or tell it
Can’t necessarily spell it

Those with that art
Stand quite apart —

And if they start boasting, say “Quell it!”

Want name and form? Dan’s your bet
Like his name, Dan’s as great as they get

If anyone’s longer
Or broader, or stronger

We haven’t encountered them yet

Dan has a mile-wide smile
And if you have been here a while

You’re sure aware
Of Dan’s savoir faire —

And his interesting management style

We know that our faith is well placed
He leaves nothing to chance or to waste

His style of leading,
Of running a meeting,

Is known as Arm-Wrestling Based

This is Dan’s way, true and tried
When there’s something of weight to decide

He selects someone — who?
Today, let’s say you —

You look, but find no place to hide

First off, your arm’s way too short
Relieved, you say, “Glad to abort!”

But Dan gets a book
And gives you a look

That says, “Come on, be a sport!”

You go arm-to-arm and — gee whiz!
Your hand is a baby’s in his

His arm is an oak
To your sapling — no joke

How is it he is what he is?

Then comes his signal to start
You give a good push for your part

You think, “Well, why not?”
And give all you’ve got —

You’re pushing with body and heart

His hand’s going down! — there’s the place!
You’re winning the unwinnable race!

With muscles converging,
Adrenalin surging —

It’s then that you notice Dan’s face

There is that fatherly smile
He’s been watching, bemused, all the while

There’s nary a trace
Of strain in his face

His strength has compassion, grace, style

He lifts up your hand like a feather
Over the top and then nether

With the gentlest sound
Your wrist touches down —

Your hand and his desk come together

You feel no sense of defeat —
You feel quite whole and complete

Nature, you’ve learned,
Cannot be spurned —

Oppose natural law and you’re beat

§ §

Cake fills Dan’s taste buds with glee
He’ll eat every piece he can see
To reserve a small slice,
Alison, so nice,
Says, “Please save the last, Dan, for me” (1)
Alison and Dan make a sport of it —
You’ve probably heard the report of it
The truth cannot hide
When they stand side by side —
They show us the long and the short of it (2)

§ §

Consider the roles that he’s played
In Accounting and Financial Aid
From Massachusetts
To where MIU sits
He’s stayed and he’s stayed and he’s stayed
To Dan such great glory is due
And therefore we’re wishing for you
On this day of your birth
As heaven meets 2arth
That you someday escape 402 (3)
He leads us as few people can
Fulfilling Maharishi’s great plan
And though we are smaller
We all stand much taller
Knowing we stand beside Dan

(1) A play on “Save the Last Dance for Me,” the title of a popular song first released in 1960 by the Drifters, with Ben E. King singing lead. The song was later covered by dozens of other artists.

(2) Dan is quite tall, Alison on the shorter side.

(3) Building 402, today Verrill Hall, is where the Accounting and Financial Aid offices were located for many years and where Dan spent a good chunk of his life. Most offices did not have windows at the time.

Danecdotes & Alisongs

It was 1978 when Dan first met Alison — in the MIU Food Service. Dan, ever awake and alert, knew what he wanted and wasted no time. Two months later he asked Alison to marry him. “I want to marry you, Alison,” Dan said. Alison’s reply has become legendary. She said,

“Do you, do you, do you, do you want to, Dan?
Do you, do you, do you, do you want to, Dan?
Do you, do you, do you, do you — do you want to, Dan?” (1)

§ §

Ever since Dan joined staff, he had wanted to go to TTC and become a teacher of the Transcendental Meditation technique. As the years went by, he accumulated enough tuition credit to take half the staff along with him. Finally the time came when he thought it would be good to go. But he still hesitated — he’d been at MIU so long that part of him could hardly bear to leave. But Alison encouraged him, saying,

“Dan . . . go away, it’s so good for you.
Oh, Dan, go away, it’s so good for you.” (2)

§ §

In July of 1991, Dan was helping to prepare for the Guru Purnima celebration, part of which was to be held outdoors at the land chosen for the Maharishi Center for Perfect Health and World Peace (now Maharishi Vedic City, two miles north of the MUM campus). As always, preparations were coming down to the wire. As the day before Guru Purnima drew to a close and the moon rose in the sky, Dan told Alison he thought he had better work through that night out at the land, to ensure that everything was finished on time. Alison gave her sweet, melodious reply:

“Do you want to, Dan, under the moonlight?
Easy, all through the night,
O do you, do you want to, Dan?” (3)

§ §

Dan came home at sunrise the next day to shower and do program. Now Dan is one of the most awake people on this campus. But on this morning, having gone at least two nights without sleep (some say three), Dan fell into a deep slumber. Alison would have liked to let him sleep as long as possible, but she knew he had to be back at the site in a few hours. So after some time she approached him where he lay sleeping, and softly sang these now famous words into his ear:

“Come-a come-a Dan dooby Dan Dan Dan,
Come-a come-a Dan dooby Dan Dan Dan,
Come-a come-a Dan dooby Dan Dan Dan,
Waking up is hard to do

I know that waking up is hard to do
But you know, you know that it’s true
You’ve got a day to spend
I know that you’ll forgive me
as I come and wake you up again. . . .

Come-a come-a Dan dooby Dan Dan Dan,
Come-a come-a Dan dooby Dan Dan Dan,
Come-a come-a Dan dooby Dan Dan Dan,

Waking up is hard to do.” (4)

(1) A play on the lyrics to the song “Do You Want to Dance,” first recorded by the American singer Bobby Freeman in 1958.

(2) A play on the lyrics to the song “Dawn (Go Away),” recorded by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons in 1964 and included in the tribute show Jersey Boys.

(3) Playing again on the lyrics to “Do You Want to Dance.”

(4) This one plays on the lyrics to the up-tempo song “Breaking Up Is Hard To Do,” an international hit for the American singer Neil Sedaka in 1962 — “two minutes and sixteen seconds of pure pop magic,” as AllMusic, the online music guide, describes it. In 1975, Sedaka re-released the song, this time as a ballad — scoring another top ten hit with a different version of the same song, only the second time an artist has done this.