Dan was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan on March 19, 1933. Life took him to Ohio, Tennessee and Texas, where he eventually settled in 1976 claiming instant “Texican” status in the state he loved so much.
A self-taught engineer, Dan became a successful business owner, running The Fire Pump Company. Designing and building fire pumps for off shore oil wells, his pumps are still working around the world in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coasts of Scotland and China.
Dan is survived by his four children; JoAnn Catcott, Jacqueline Gillespie, Julie Gillespie and Joseph Daniel Gillespie Jr., and their spouses, Jack Catcott and Milene Romero and his grandchildren; Jennifer, Jessica and Jameson Catcott; and Joseph Daniel III, Isabella and Lucy Gillespie.
He is reunited through death with his wife of 54 years, Martha Ruth Gillespie, his mother and step-father Hoyt and Alice Bolinger, father John Gillespie, sister JoAnn Gillespie, his mother and father-in-law, Aline and Vestal Mahan, sister-in-law Joyce Walker and brother-in-law Charles Dill.
Funeral services were held at 2pm on Wednesday, March 23, at Saint John Vianney Catholic Church, 3201 Sunrise Road, Round Rock, Texas.
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