Daniel Vaughn

Daniel Vaughn had a way of drawing people close to him, with his soulful warmth, sharp intellect and joy of life. He was a devoted family man, a lover of history and a respected corporate lawyer specializing in mergers and acquisitions for some of Silicon Valley’s top tech companies.

After a brief illness, he died Oct. 30. He was 54.

He leaves behind his beloved wife, Nicci, their daughters Samantha and Sadie, and an extended family with whom he shared an especially deep bond. He nurtured lifelong friendships and made new ones, especially at Mission Pipe in San Jose where he was a favorite cigar club member.

A San Francisco native and son of Alyce and Lionel Vaughn, Dan was raised in the city the youngest of three brothers. He learned his love of football from his father and brothers, Lionel III and Issac who were just old enough to coach his Paul youth football team. At St. Ignatius High School, Dan excelled in track and basketball and was a threeyear starting quarterback on the varsity team. In 1986, he was elected student body president, the first black student at SI to achieve that honor. He appreciated the significance of the moment, but was reluctant to emphasize it. “I will be the president of the student body who happens to be black,” he told classmates at the time.

A scholar-athlete, he earned a scholarship to Washington State University where he continued to play football. There, he earned a degree in history and met Nicci, both lifelong passions. He graduated in 1990 cum laude and married Nicci in 1993. He earned his law degree from the University of Virginia and began his career at Akin Gump in Dallas, moved to renowned Silicon Valley firm Wilson Sonsini and then returned to Seattle where he practiced at both Perkins Coie and Lane Powell. He eventually left firm life and went in-house initially with CDC Software.

Back in Silicon Valley, he worked in director and vice president roles at McAfee and Intel, where he was lauded for his work helping acquire numerous companies that help advance Intel’s evolution from a PC company to a data centered one. Most recently, he was senior director at Paypal where he was “on top of his game,” his brother, Lionel, said. “He had a passion for doing deals.”

Dan settled his family in San Jose’s Rose Garden neighborhood and became an avid supporter of his daughters’ love for performing arts. As his sister-in-law,

P.J. Vaughn, put it, “he knew the aspects of theater like he knew the game of football.”

With his brother, Issac, Dan coached a community flag football team that included Issac’s son, Joseph – who would go on to play football at Yale – and later coached flag football at his daughters’ school, St. Martin of Tours in San Jose. He became a member of the Board of Regents at Archbishop Mitty High, where Samantha is a student.

Neighbors and friends will miss his bear hugs at parties, his caring and compassionate nature and his unending curiosity. In business as with family, Dan was a quiet leader, impressing upon his daughters to excel in school and pursue their passions. Like the rest of the Vaughn family, he supported his nieces and nephew in their extracurricular endeavors and honed the family tradition of round-the-table testimonials to honor family member accomplishments with words of wisdom, wit and praise.

One of the highlights of his year was arranging annual trips with his two brothers to Las Vegas for March Madness. It’s a tradition that’s difficult for Issac and Lionel to envision without him.

The brothers credit their parents with instilling that “your brother is the best friend you’ll ever have,” Issac said. “You don’t take that relationship for granted.”

Dan passed that lesson onto his daughters who, without his larger-than-life presence, need each other now more than ever.

Along with his wife and daughters and parents, Dan is survived by brother Lionel and his wife P.J. Vaughn and their daughters Lauryn and Sydney; brother Issac Vaughn and his wife Maria and their children Jacqueline and Joseph; niece Alexandra Spurlock; and nephews Christopher and Jason Spurlock.

A funeral Mass will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 3, at St. Martin of Tours church at 200 O’Connor Drive, San Jose. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Washington State University athletic scholarships through cougarathleticfund.com.