This week I was in the Twin Cities for the first time this year.
A friend of mine, Daniel Soderlind, died last month. Friends and family arranged a get together on what would have been his 79th birthday to remember him.
I usually stopped in to see him for a couple of hours when I found myself in town. He considered himself to be an adoptive father of mine consistent with Hawaiian tradition and had known me nearly all of my life.
Daniel was a life-long artist and fascinating personality. I’ve included some pictures that I took of him, his cat Windy, and his workspace that I took in my last visit to see him. It was the last time I saw him alive.
Bad Penny 
Hi – this message is for Barbra:
was wondering how you were doing on the Daniel Story?
I have a couple of people that are Interested in what happened to him. I do recall much of our conversation
and would like to put you intouch with Leilani Robberts
and Andy Hyle – They are old friends of Daniel.
Thanks, Baird If you Email me I will forward their
addresses to you if it is OK?
I passed this message on to her. She’ll be in touch.
hi ian, baird webb forwarded me this site. we were big fans of daniel in the late 60s and early 70s at the height of his metal-sculpting glory, and hung out at his house/studio a lot. what a guy! the photo of the cat brings back memories — daniel had a cat back then named mr. o’brien. dan would light a cigarette and stick it in mr. o’brien’s mouth and mr o’brien would sit there cool, calm and unmoved until the cigarette was removed. not particularly PC but none of us cared then and we still don’t care now!! daniel taught us that it was OK to grow older and still stay young. or to put it more accurately — to mature in years but remain juvenile — much to the irritation of tight-asses everywhere to this day. bon voyage, SODE — see you on the other side of the membrane.
Thank you for sharing with us. Those photos were wonderful and took me back many decades. I don’t know anyone who wasn’t profoundly affected by Dan just knowing him . He was a great and generous human being. He touched so many lives without ever leaving his sofa. We always just took for granted that his home was our home.He was there for all of us to talk to any time and he was a surrogate parent when so many of us needed one back then.
Aloha nui loa Dan.
Dan was a wonderful friend, and a great teacher. He taught me welding sculpture in school. But mostly Dan explained to me a great deal about life. Many day’s I would sit in his home by Diamond Head and listen to him talk about his early days in France. He shared his life’s stories and adventures. Dan gave me the strength and confidence to travel the world. Dan introduced me to a lot of great people, that became friends. People I still think about today. Dan was a man with a caring soul and kind heart.
I remember Mr. O’brien and the cigarettes! Dan was my teacher in high school and my mentor. He taught me to weld and create metal sculptures. What Leilani said about the sofa and his home is true. When I went in the Coast Guard in 1972 (remember the draft lottery?) I visited him on a couple of occasions when home on leave. He moved and I lost touch. Periodically, I searched the Internet, with no luck. Someone told me that they thought he had died many years ago. Last week I was thrilled to find an artist link with a picture of Dan and some contact info. I sent an email, but within five minutes, found this link saying that he had died in 2007. Found and lost in the space of a few minutes… Thanks for the posting. Sounds like he meant a lot to us.
I miss Daniel. He lived with me for a short time in ’95. It was a sad day when I arrive for a visit @ his apartment and not find his name along side his button. Thank you so much for sharing pics. I spent many hours in that ground apartment and have wonderful memories of great talks there.
We still miss Daniel. He was a great friend to my husband and his family. Daniel went to school with my husband’s father (John Anderson) and Daniel made a point to Daniel made a point to keep in touch after Johnny passed. He was a great man.
We feel fortunate to have several of Daniel’s pieces displayed in our home.