Mr. Dan Stone's Obituary
Dan Stone passed away on December 14, 2023, at the age of 84. He was born September 3, 1939, to Walter and Bernice Stone of Wichita Falls, TX. Dan was a gifted thinker, a lover of mathematics and the outdoors, a pioneer in the nation's telecommunication industry, and a tremendous father and friend. Whether running a company of several hundred people or planning an outdoor gathering for a dozen friends, Dan made life look easy and fun. And he was always on the prowl for ways to make others feel good. In his early twenties, Dan combined his creative problem-solving abilities with the computers of the day to solve numerous problems facing industry and academia. Among other things, Dan's algorithms modeled the weather of Venus, improved the efficiency of General Foods' production lines, helped medical researchers determine the efficacy of life-saving drugs, and shaved critical pennies off the manufacturing cost of cereal boxes. He also wrote the first versions of C.A.P.E. which was the first commercially available software package dedicated to the mathematics of packaging and palletizing. In 1968, Dan began his extraordinary career in the telecommunications industry. At the age of 29 he founded Danray, Inc in Richardson, TX. Danray developed one of the first digital phone switches for use in the telecommunications industry. The digital switch made possible things that we now take for granted like Call Waiting and Call Forwarding. The second company Dan started, Compucon, did the engineering work for other companies' microwave towers and satellite receiver stations. Danray and Compucon were major reasons why Richardson, TX became a hotbed for the telecommunications industry. Dan also co-founded The Salinon Corporation where, among other things, he wrote software that ingeniously studied shopper behavior. Dan was exceptionally well-read and enjoyed pondering mathematics and nature in his spare time. He rode dirt bikes in the Rocky Mountains, wrote poetry, and built inviting structures on his beloved "Brushy Land" in East Texas. He was known for his intelligence, generosity, honesty, fairness and playfulness. His sense of wonder was contagious to all those lucky enough to be close to him. There won't be another like him. Dan is survived by his son Brad; by his daughter T.J. and her wife Susanna and their children Zack, Chloe and Nick; and by innumerable close friends that meant the world to him. A memorial service will take place in Restland's Memorial Chapel at 2 PM on Sunday, February 4, 2023.
To view a livestream of the service, please follow the link below:
https://youtube.com/live/GTaWWzk9aSY?feature=share
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