Dan Hart celebrates 80 years

Hannah Gross
NLJ Correspondent 
 
Dan Hart of Upton celebrated his 80th birthday at the Upton Community Center on June 13 with an open house organized by his daughter-in-law Sandy Hart. Anyone who knows him will tell you that he has a hard-work ethic and, despite being retired, has never slowed down. 
“I wasn’t made to sit still,” Hart said. 
Born on May 12, 1940, in Deadwood, S.D, Hart has lived in the Black Hills area nearly his whole life. He moved to the Devils Tower area in Crook County, and a few years later, moved to Sundance, where he attended grade school from second to seventh grade. 
One of his favorite memories from school, he said, was the time a classmate brought a billy goat to school when Hart was in the first grade. The students played with the goat during recess, but when they were called back to class, that’s when the trouble began. 
The goat decided he wanted to join them for class, so the older boys piled their desks behind the door to stop him from knocking it down. However, he kept kicking at the door — no matter what the boys did to block him — all throughout class that day. Hart chuckled at the memory and said that the students were instructed not to bring the goat back to school. 
Hart moved to Osage in eighth grade and attended high school in Upton where he soon became a track star. He said he was too small to play football and other similar sports, but he had to find a way to beat the athletic jocks.
“I had to beat all the pets … and they couldn’t outrun me,” Hart said. 
Hart said he was the smallest kid in his class, and even after flunking a grade, he was still the smallest kid in his class. He began running track his sophomore year of high school and by the end of his high school career, he had two state records under his belt. He broke the record for the half mile and was on the relay team that broke the mile medley time. 
“That was pretty good for a skinny little Osage kid,” Hart said. 
After high school, Hart went to a technical school in Denver to learn electronics, such as radio and TV repair, but he soon learned it wasn’t his cup of tea. 
“I liked it outside too much, so I was done with that,” Hart said.
On June 24, 1962, he married Mary Stevens, who was born and raised in Upton and a freshman when Hart was a senior. They are celebrating 58 years of marriage this summer. 
After getting married, Hart began working on the missile sites, and that took the two of them to Wall, S.D., Cheyenne, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Great Falls, Mont. They returned to Wyoming, where Hart began a job with True Oil. In total, Hart said, he probably worked on at least 100 missile sites. 
However, whenever he saw PCL equipment, he couldn’t resist the urge to take a look at it, so he finally bought some of his own and started Dan Hart Patrol Service. He began with a motor grader, filling and grading ranch roads mostly, as he grew his business. 
Although he no longer operates it himself, the business is still under the same name, and according to his son, Danny Hart, the elder Hart was in the construction business for at least 60 years. Hart helped build stretches of Interstate 90 in parts of South Dakota and Wyoming, including portions from Sundance to Moorcroft and Gillette to Buffalo. 
Hart and his wife have two children — their daughter, Judy, who is the oldest, and, Danny, the youngest. Danny’s wife, Sandy, worked for Hart, and he acknowledged that she is a hard worker, even compared with some of his 6-foot-3-inch employees. 
“She could out-shovel the pair of them — she’s a good one,” Hart said. 
He enjoyed doing construction because, he said, it was rewarding whenever he could see the fruits of his labor. 
“I like to look back at the end of the day and seeing what I did,” Hart said. 
After retiring 14 years ago, Hart decided to purchase a sawmill as a “hobby” to keep from sitting around doing nothing but watching TV. 
“His idea of retirement was buying a sawmill. That’s how he slowed down,” his son said. 
“That’s one of my playthings. I get a lot of enjoyment out of it,” Hart stated. 
Mary acknowledged that he’s always been a hard worker, and Danny said that’s what he admires most in his father. 
“Hard work will get you some place, and lying around and lollygagging won’t,” Hart said. 
“The man is busy, busy — he never stops,” Mary said. “He’s been a hard worker all his life and a good provider.” 
He learned his work ethic from his own father, who owned a sawmill, by following him around when he was younger, going to look at new pieces of equipment and learning the skills and knowledge he uses to this day, Hart said. 
“He told me to keep my tools sharp,” Hart said, adding that it’s hard enough to do a job with a sharp ax, let alone a dull one. 
A life lesson that Hart has learned, and believes is important, is to always treat others the way you want to be treated. 
To celebrate his 80 years of life, Hart’s daughter and daughter-in-law threw an open house for him, and while he was a little nervous because of COVID-19, the decision wasn’t up to him and he had a nice time seeing all his old friends, workers and classmates. 
“I had a very, very nice 80th birthday,” Hart said.