DAN KIRBY
PUBLIC SERVICE UPLIFTING ART AND COMMUNITY
1946 • CATEGORY BUSINESS
• HOMETOWN SIOUX FALLS, SD •
NOMINATED BY JENNIFER KIRBY
Dan was born in Sioux Falls, among the first of the baby boomers and the oldest of five boys raised by Joe and Dona Kirby. He was among the 945 members of the last class to graduate from Washington High School before the opening of the "new" Lincoln High. Dan developed an early interest in politics and served as chair of the SD Teenage Republicans. His support of free enterprise and individual liberty led him to become active early in the Greater Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce where, as Chairman, he kicked off the 1983 effort to market the city under the theme of "Sioux Falls-A Good Thing Going". Dan subsequently served as chair of the SD Chamber of Commerce and Industry and spent six years on the board of the US Chamber of Commerce. Dan graduated in political science from Stanford and got his law degree at UC
30 • 2021 HONORS CEREMONY
Berkeley. While in college, he met Arlene Wagner on a blind date. Fortuitously, this California native had spent many years visiting her dad’s family in Wagner, South Dakota. They were married in Sacramento after he finished law school and she spent three years as an international flight attendant. Their son Douglas lives in Longmont, CO with his wife Salihah and daughters Amadine and Sagan. Daughter Sharon lives in Fairfax, CA with her husband Shem and sons Thomas and Gabriel. After practicing corporate law in San Diego for three years, Dan spent his career as Executive VP and General Counsel of Western Surety Company, a fourthgeneration family business founded by his great grandfather, Joe Kirby (SDHOF class of 1993). Dan traveled widely in the US promoting the surety industry. As the senior member of his generation, he was in charge
