Dan O’Hanlon was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and grew up in Chicago. He graduated from Lyons Township High School and recently was named to its Hall of Fame. He received his bachelor’s degree in speech from Marquette University in 1970 and his law degree from Arizona State University in 1973.
After that, he became the federal law clerk for the U.S. District Court in Tucson, Arizona. He was recruited to the federal Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., and remained there for almost five years. He became the director of the Marshall University Community College Paralegal Program and was later the chairman of the Marshall University Criminal Justice Program. He also served as an assistant prosecuting attorney for Cabell County and after two years was appointed as the City of Huntington municipal judge.
In 1984 he was elected as the youngest Circuit Court judge in West Virginia at age 36. He served there for 26 years then was appointed by the West Virginia Supreme Court as a senior status circuit court judge and has been appointed to handle the cases for judges all over West Virginia who have become ill, retired or died. When he retired as a judge, then-Gov. Joe Manchin appointed him as the director of WVNET, which sent the internet to all the state elements and all K-12 schools. He retired from there after eight years and also retired from 28 years on the Board of the YMCA. In 1993, he won the U.S. Amateur Team Chess Championship.
