Rev. Daniel S. Harris, fire chaplain, dies

Early in his career the Rev. Daniel S. Harris III switched from the world of business to the world of the Episcopal Church, where he devoted his life to ministering to parishioners on Long Island.

Known as Father Dan, Harris also served at Ground Zero, tending to needs of first responders and helping in temporary morgues.

"He was a walking, talking sacrament on legs," said the Rev. Lawrence Provenzano, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island, who conducted Harris' funeral Tuesday.

Harris, 69, of Hampton Bays, died Dec. 29 of liver and kidney illnesses, said his wife, Robin Harris.

The evening before he died, he opened his eyes, slowly scanned family members, and said, "What a crew," eliciting laughter, she said. "It was typical Dan Harris."

Harris and Provenzano were both fire chaplains who served together at Ground Zero, where, Provenzano said, Harris developed the prayer procedure used as remains were brought into the morgues. As a result, Provenzano said, when they later met with families, they could say "the remains of loved ones were handled with dignity and prayer."

Born April 22, 1942, in Hackettstown, N.J., Harris was a 1961 graduate of Bay Shore High School, received a bachelor's degree in business administration from Babson College in Massachusetts, and went to work as a junior executive for a company that made metal cans.

Still, he told family members that he had wanted to be an Episcopal priest since he was 10 years old, his wife said.

A tipping point came, she said, when he was working in Manhattan in the early 1970s and met a young boy outside a church. The boy took his hand and said, "I want you to meet my friend Jesus."

That led Harris to attend George Mercer Jr. Memorial School of Theology in Garden City. He was ordained in 1974 and served in parishes including those in Hampton Bays, Riverhead, Freeport, Sayville and Shelter Island. He also served in South Weymouth, Mass.

A fire chaplain since 1973, he was on the scene of the 2003 Station Nightclub fire in Warwick, R.I., where 100 people died. In an interview then with The Associated Press, he spoke of the emotional challenges firefighters face in such situations: "You have not only the exposure to the death, you have the feeling of having failed. We remind them over and over again that this was not a failed effort on their part."

Besides his wife, survivors include children Scott Jeffrey, Meghan Leigh Harris and Rebecca Diane Harris, all of Hampton Bays; two children from an earlier marriage, Daniel Charles of Baldwin and Jill Harris Willis of High Point, N.C.; sisters Jean Harris Lubrano and Claire Harris Overlee, both of Hingham, Mass.; and five grandchildren. He is predeceased by a son, Joshua, and brother, Jeffrey Ketcham Harris of Bay Shore.

Burial was in Good Ground Cemetery, Hampton Bays. The family asks donations be made to the Suffolk County Volunteer Firefighters Burn Center Fund Inc., P.O. Box 765, Smithtown, NY 11787.