Description
Daniel Dennis “Nip” Soran was the youngest of nine children born to Joseph and Ruth Soran. Joseph died when Dan was not yet two years old. Ruth raised the rest of the family during the Great Depression by herself. The sons and daughters learned to be resourceful. They all helped support the family .One of the traits Dan learned when growing up was to work with the materials at your disposal, no matter how scarce. Dan became expert at this. Dan graduated from Caldwell High School in 1949 and spent a little time at Idaho State University until the money ran out. Dan and Joanne Colvard were married in 1950. Danise, the first of eight children, was born in 1951. Every couple of years another addition came to the family: Stan, Brian, Renae, Danny, John, Marty, and Mimi. At St. Mary’s Church in Caldwell, they were one of several families that took up one whole pew. Dan was the family “go-to guy” when a remodel or a building was in order. He remodeled his own first home, finished his second home, remodeled his Mom’s house, his Brother’s house, built cabins for two Brothers, built a play house for Danise and a special room for Stan’s electric trains. That’s just the short list. Whenever one of Dan’s kids were married, his wedding present to them would be to remodel their house. That’s quite an endeavor when you consider there are eight kids and some of them married more than once! When the CHS Class of ’71 used the Caldwell Train Depot for their 20th Reunion, Dan volunteered his help to make the place operational. It hadn’t been used for years. Working as a self-employed floor covering installer, he usually included services free that other outfits charged for. In the middle sixties Dan, a life-long baseball fanatic, got a chance to coach the Knights of Columbus Little League team. The new team, made up of what was left over from the already made-up teams, started off poorly, but after two seasons was at the top of their league standings. Dan coached all of his sons and moved up with them through the leagues until he was coaching B Legion Baseball. Along the way he took teams of boys to all the State tournaments. Dan worked with the Caldwell Athletic Round Table in the ‘70s and ‘80s and, together with Phil Smith, worked miracles on a small budget. By not always using the correct channels, they moved forward and around bureaucratic obstacles. A whole generation of boys learned from Dan. Some of it was baseball, but a lot of it was life: How to use what you have to the best advantage. Not everyone is cut out to be an athlete but there are many situations where resourcefulness trumps strength and agility. In the middle-‘80s, the Soran family got involved in Soldier Mountain Ranch, north of Fairfield, Idaho. This was a made-to-order paradise for Dan. Virtually everything needed his touch to make it usable, and there was usually little or no money to work with. He got his whole family involved and, for twenty years, they spent just about every spare weekend and then some trying to make it go. Eventually Dan practically lived at the ranch, doing repairs and maintenance, until his failing health forced him to come home. We were nearing completion of a golf course clubhouse in his memory when the ranch was sold and we were unable to fulfill his last wish. As I write this short biography, I keep remembering bits of advice that Dad, Dan Soran, gave me. He probably thought I never listened. One gem that sums it up best is, “Don’t fight your hole card. Work with what you’re dealt.”
