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AN INDEPENDENT AMERICAN IS CALLED HOME TO BE WITH GOD
by William K. Shearer, California American Independent Party
Thirty-five years ago, I went to Nevada to help organize a new political party for America, and there, for the first time, I met Dan Hansen. He was a young man energetic, enthusiastic for the cause, with a winning personality, and a youthful and boundless courage which he retained during his entire life.
Born and reared in Nevada, Dan was blessed with a wonderful family, and with an inspiring faith which his life expressed. He was a dedicated and untiring crusader for constitutional government, and for the moral values which he derived from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- Day Saints. Dan was straight forward, and honest in all his dealings. He was pure of heart; as Jesus said of Nathaniel, one "in whom there is no guile."
Dan was a prime mover in the new political party formed in Nevada in 1967-68. He named it the Independent American Party. These words summarized the man, Dan Hansen, as much as did the cause he and the party espoused. He loved that name, and he carried on a tireless campaign to make "Independent American" the name of the national party.
During the 1970s Dan served as chairman of the Nevada party, and was an active participant in the national committee of which the California and Nevada parties were a part. In 1977, Dan succeeded me as national committee chairman, a post in which he honorably served through 1980.
For a brief period, during the Reagan years, the Independent American Party lost its ballot qualified status in Nevada. But Dan revived it, leading it to successes which have now made it the third largest political party in Nevada. Dan repeatedly served the IAP as a candidate, and the tickets he organized made some of the best new party showings in the history of our times. Dan had a rare ability to dramatize issues, and he utilized the gift of humor with which he increased the attractiveness of the party’s message. A successful businessman, he used the fruits of that success to aid the causes he loved.
In 1992, Dan helped form the national Constitution Party (then the U.S. Taxpayers Party), and was consistently a leader in both the Nevada and national parties, serving on the Constitution Party’s executive committee, and as chairman to its Western States division.
The party never had a more generous, courageous, industrious, and loyal leader than Dan Hansen; and my family and I never had a better friend. I will never forget his nomination of my wife, Eileen, for Vice-President at the 1976 national convention.
On January 22, 2002, Dan was called home to be with God, as the result of an automobile accident on an icy Nevada road. His beautiful wife, Luz, injured in the accident, survives him. Dan’s funeral services were held on Saturday, January 26, at the Rock Boulevard Church of the Latter-Day Saints in Sparks, Nevada. Let us pray that God will bring comfort to Luz, Dan’s mother, his children, brothers, and sister in this time of earthly loss.
I will always remember Dan Hansen as every inch a man. His spirit was indomitable. He never gave up. He battled giants: the Federal bureaucracy, the IRS, the Federal Reserve, the abortionists, and the homosexual activists. He was constant in his support of individual rights, of taxpayers, and property owners. In every sense of the word he was an Independent American.
Dan’s untimely passing brought forth a host of testimonials and tributes to him from people who knew him, loved, and admired him.
His sister, Janine Hansen Hawkins, long associated with Dan’s work for the party, described her brother as "a man of integrity" who "influenced many lives" and who "never lost sight of his vision for restoring the Constitution."
Constitution Party national Chairman Jim Clymer of Pennsylvania, said of Dan:
"For decades, Dan applied himself faithfully to the cause of restoring integrity and justice to our system of government, freely and abundantly giving of his life, labors and resources. There are few men that I have ever met that have been driven by greater passion to fight for the Constitution and our God given rights, including the right to life for the pre-born children, than Dan."
"Our country and our party have lost a one of a kind…Independent American," Clymer said. "His inspiration, encouragement, and life’s example will be remain with us, indelibly etched in our remembrance, as we move forward."
National Committee Vice-Chairman Ed Frami of Wisconsin said of Hansen’s passing that "this country has lost a great leader for the cause of liberty…. In Dan’s political vocabulary, the word ‘retreat’ did not exist. Neither did ‘foxhole.’ Dan was always out front, leading the charge. Attack! Attack! Attack!"
Fred Lokken, political analyst and a faculty member of Truckee Meadows Community College described Dan as "one of those credible voices, out there, of an alternative party. He represented what Nevada is all about as a political state."
My daughter, Nancy, who has known Dan since childhood, expressed the heartfelt sentiment of our family when she wrote:
"I am blessed to have had Dan Hansen as my friend. To see Dan show up at the meetings in his cowboy hat and boots always tickled me, and brought a huge smile to my face. He was a wonderful person to talk with….He genuinely cared about what was going on in your life, and if he could help in any way, he was there for you. He consistently fought for truth, justice, and freedom. He was a truly great Independent American. The world lost some of its sparkle when Dan Hansen was called home.
"Vaya con Dios, mi Amigo."
May all of us resolve to hold high the torch of honor and truth which Dan has passed to us.
