Daniel Joseph Sweeney of Denver, Colorado passed away peacefully at The Denver Hospice on October 27, 2021 after a prolonged stay in the University of Colorado Hospital Anschutz Medical Campus Intensive Care Unit.

Dan was born on February 21, 1943 to Dolores and Allan Sweeney in Columbus, Ohio.  He graduated from St. Charles Preparatory School in Columbus and earned an undergraduate degree in Business Administration from Ohio State University, followed by an MBA from Indiana University and then a PhD in economics from Ohio State University.  He met his wife Sue at Ohio State and they enjoyed a 53 year marriage which produced two children, Jennifer Brook Sweeney Rudolph and Tyler Damon Sweeney.

Dan began his career as an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville before accepting a position with Dayton Hudson Corporation in Minneapolis in 1973 as Director of Strategic Planning for the Corporation and Chief of Staff to the CEO of the Dayton's division.  In 1979, Dan and his family moved back to Columbus, Ohio to join Management Horizons, a retail consulting firm founded by his PhD professors at Ohio State and later acquired by Price Waterhouse where he became a partner and led the Management Horizons division of the firm.  In 1995, Dan accepted an exciting opportunity to build a global retail consulting practice for IBM Corporation as a Vice President in IBM's Global Distribution Industry.

After retiring from IBM in 1999, he and his wife Sue embarked upon their dream of owning a home in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, acquiring a beautiful piece of land in Cordillera, Colorado where they would build their dream home with the intent of sharing it with many friends and family.  While living in Cordillera, he founded and served as Chairman and President of the Center for Corporate Excellence, an independent research center formed to advance ethical behavior in the business community.  During his time in Cordillera, he returned to the classroom as an adjunct faculty member of the MBA program at the University of Denver.  In 2010, Dan and Sue moved to Denver full time where Dan became the Director of the Institute for Enterprise Ethics at the University of  Denver, a position he described as a labor of love.

Dan made a clear distinction between how he earned his living and how he made his living.  Fulfilling the latter, he was an avid biker since his days in Minneapolis and was still riding his bike regularly at age 78.  When living in the mountains, along with mountain biking, he was an avid skier, hiker, and photographer.  He and Sue loved sharing their home with their family and friends from all over the United States and beyond and loved to host small dinner parties.  No topic was 'off the table' and led to the most enjoyable exchanges when varying opinions were expressed among the guests, often times lasting for hours and many taking home new perspectives.  He was always a voracious reader exploring a myriad of subjects in great depth and maintained a large library at home.  Music was a favorite pastime for Dan, especially classical and jazz.  His favorite song was "Vincent" by Don McLean, and he loved Vivaldi's Four Seasons Trumpet Concerto, Handel's Water Music, Brahms' Brandenburg Concerto and Copeland's Appalachian Spring and Fanfare for the Common Man.

Dan took enormous pleasure in his three grandchildren.  They accompanied Sue and Dan for numerous concerts and performances at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts when they were growing up.  For several years, Dan took the older two boys on road trips every summer introducing them to some of his favorite places including Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Mesa Verde, Sand Dunes National Park, Ouray Colorado, Yankee Boy Basin, Mesa Verde, Yellowstone, the Black Hills of South Dakota, Mount Rushmore, and the Badlands along with an overnight trip on horseback led by two genuine cowboys with stories to tell. While Dan and the boys were gone, Sue and a friend took their younger granddaughters on adventures in Colorado.  All three of the grandchildren received a book of photographs and notes Dan and Sue wrote of that year's trip on Christmas morning which was usually the first gift they opened and captivated their attention in spite of a pile of other gifts waiting to be opened.

Dan is survived by his loving wife Sue, his son Tyler, Josh Rudolph, and grandchildren Braedon Rudolph, Cooper Sweeney, and Georgia Rudolph.  His daughter Jennifer Brooke Sweeney Rudolph preceded him in death passing in March of 2021 following a courageous 11 year battle with metastatic breast cancer.

A Memorial Service is scheduled for Tuesday, December 7, 2021 at ll:00 at Saint John's Episcopal Cathedral, 1350 North Washington Street, Denver, Colorado 80203.  Lunch will follow at a venue yet to be confirmed.  Please RSVP if you plan to attend the service only or service and lunch to Sue ( suzswn@icloud.com ) or Tyler ( tylerdsweeney@gmail.com ).

All those attending are asked to have been vaccinated for COVID.

Those wishing to contribute to Dan's memory are encouraged to donate to Wounded Warriors or Doctors Without Borders both of which Dan generously supported.

https://donate.doctorswithoutborders.org/

https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/