Obituary of Daniel Crim Lavery

Daniel Crim Lavery, age 84, of Granada Hills, California, passed away on August 10, 2024 at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Panorama City, California.

A Celebration of Life Service will be held at The Rose Funeral Home, 4444 Cochran St., Simi Valley, California on August 26, 2024.  The doors will open at 10 a.m. and the service will begin at 11 a.m.  The service will be officiated by family and friends of the deceased. There will be a lunch reception following the service.  The service can be livestreamed at:  

https://boxcast.tv/view/daniel-lavery-funeral-service-lzr7ie4oc4l2ambmplfx

Dan was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Richard J. Lavery and Hilda Crim Lavery on January 18, 1940.  Dan’s father was a career Naval Officer, so Dan and his siblings lived in many different locations throughout their school years, attending schools on the east coast, west coast, and Japan.  Dan graduated from Jordan High School in Long Beach, California in 1958.  Upon graduating from High School Dan attended Duke University for two years, before being admitted to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland.  Dan graduated from the Academy in 1964 and served as a Naval Officer, flight and ship navigator in the Navy from 1964-1968.  Dan was honorably discharged from the Navy and enrolled at University of California Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco in the fall of 1969 and graduated with honors in 1972.  Dan was awarded a Reginald Heber Smith scholarship to pursue further training in Civil Rights litigation at Howard University.  

After graduating from Hastings Law School, Dan quickly joined the ranks of UFW lawyers.  Most notably Dan filed the Chavez v. Fitzsimmons Civil Rights Law Suit which ultimately settled with an agreement that the Teamsters would no longer attempt to represent agricultural field workers.  It is still honored to this day.  After leaving the UFW, Dan continued with a distinguished legal career representing workers and victims of Civil Rights violations.

Dan was a devoted father that loved coaching and supporting his kids’ sports teams.  Dan loved animals and enjoyed the companionship of his many dogs over the years.  He will be greatly missed by Domino and Snickers, his latest labrador retrievers.  He sang in several choirs over the years, and even performed with the Sepulveda Unitarian Choir in Italy.  Dan enjoyed his friendships and looked forward every year to participating in the Feeble Olympics, a week of sports activities that ended in a party to watch the Super Bowl together. Dan was very proud of his memoir, All the Difference, which chronicled his life as a military brat, naval officer, peace activist, and Civil Rights Attorney.

Daniel Lavery is survived by his wife Joan Lavery, children- Aleksey, Sean and Brette and grandchildren- Orion, Everest, Phoenix, Wren and Rhys, his sister Valerie Sadd.  He is preceded in death by his brother Richard J. Lavery Jr. (Chip).

The family would like to extend their gratitude to Breath of Sunshine for caring for Dan in the final days of his life.

Memorial donations may be made to:

AmericanBrainFoundation.org

American Brain Foundation promotes and invests in research to defeat brain diseases and disorders.