Dan West has been in an electric wheelchair since 2004. He received his B.S. in Business Administration in 1973 and M.P.A. in Public Administration in 1978, from California State University at Hayward. He traveled to Mexico and Colombia with Wycliff Bible Translators for a year and then took a position with Lockheed Missiles and Space Company in 1980. He worked there before he was overcome with a disease in 2001. He currently lives in Newark, California, with his wife, Marcia.