MASSARO: If you needed help, Dan Thorsnes was on the spot

By Gary Massaro, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Thorsnes, 69

Dan Thorsnes was the ideal big brother who only squawked a little when his kid sister squandered his marble collection.

"I snuck up into the attic where he had his train and marbles. He had marbles in cans," said his sister, Karen Thorsnes, of Aurora.

She was much, much younger. And she took the marbles out, one at a time, and dropped them down a hole in the floor. They're probably still trapped in the ceiling of the house in Oregon, where the family was living.

"I was like, ching-ching, ching-ching," Karen said. "He forgave me. Or he sorta did. Years later, he'd say, 'Heaven knows how much of a fortune they've got in the ceiling of that house.' "

Good thing Mr. Thorsnes wasn't money hungry.

"He was always generous with people in need," said his brother-in-law, Bill Gibbs, of Manitou Springs. "If you needed help, he would help you. If you needed money and he had the money, he would help you."

Mr. Thorsnes died March 15 of lung cancer at Hospice of St. John in Lakewood. He was 69.

He was born June 30, 1938, in Astoria, Ore., to Carl and Alice Orava Thorsnes. He grew up in Portland, Ore. His family moved to Lakewood in 1954.

"We all worked for Montgomery Wards," Karen said. "Dad was a Montgomery Wards man."

Mr. Thorsnes returned to Oregon to go to the University of Oregon, where he graduated with a degree in business in 1959. Then he enlisted in the Navy. When his tour ended, he came back to Colorado. He sold clothing for awhile.

Then he moved to Manitou Springs, where he owned The Exit, a restaurant and bar, for 14 years.

"It was all beat up. He remodeled it," Karen said.

His late sister, Jan Gibbs, helped with the interior decorating.

"It ended up being a really grand place," Karen said. "It was something he always wanted to do, own a restaurant."

The business folded, and 11 years ago Mr. Thorsnes went to work on a ranch near Franktown.

"He was a cowboy," Karen said. "But everyone called him the Old Viking. That's what he used to go by, the Old Viking." That's because of his heritage. His father's family was Norwegian and his mother's was Finnish, Gibbs said.

He left the ranch when he was diagnosed with cancer, and moved to Denver, where he managed an apartment complex.

Karen said her brother was easy to talk to. And when she was having the usual teenage troubles, he was the only one who understood. She said he comforted her when her dad died right after she finished high school, and a few years later when her mom died.

"He was always there for me," Karen said. "He was trustworthy."

He liked his leisure time, too.

"He was a great pool player, a great golfer, a great dart player and a great card player," Karen said. "He said he never played poker. But he was a good poker player."

Mr. Thorsnes never married.

"He didn't have time," Karen said. "He was too busy running his own business."

Mr. Thorsnes requested no services.

"He wants his ashes scattered in Astoria, where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean," Gibbs said.

massarog@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5271

• March 24, 2008

  8:19 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Konyok writes:

  Dan's building was across the alley from mine. He was a neighborhood fixture, resource, inspiration and always funny as hell. Sorely missed, he is.