Terry Gross

You know the expression that if you're an intern, make yourself indispensable?

Danny managed to do that pretty immediately, recommending guests, booking guests, organizing things.

He even invited me over to dinner and served what I like to think of as baked eggplant a la sponge.

But I forgave him for that.

Now he's a good cook, famous among other things for his chicken soup.

I remember we drove together to the bar at an inn in the Poconos so I could record an interview with the pianist John Coates for NPR to use in its concert program, Jazz Alive.

Before driving there, when Danny and I met at the radio station, he showed up in a bright yellow sports jacket that was also too large.

It made me wonder, maybe I misjudged his sensibility, until I realized he'd pranked me to see how I'd react, and then put on his real jacket.

After he graduated, our then station manager, Bill Seemering, understood how indispensable Danny was, and he kept managing to find hidden money to hire Danny part-time and eventually full-time as a producer.

When Fresh Air became a national show in 1987, Danny became its executive producer.

There were so many changes we had to make in the show, and then we faced so many changes in the world, all of which Danny led us through.

This included the first Gulf War, 9-11, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, political crises.

He became a father not long after we went national.

At the time, he was the only parent working on the show.

As time went on, and there were many more fresh air babies, Danny typically managed to come up with ways for them to stay on the show while still being good parents.

He built in a measure of flexibility, like sharing a position with another new parent from our team.

allowing each of them to work half-time.

When it came to what we broadcast on the show, Danny was the final word about what we actually put on the air.

He always made sure we were being fair to the guest and the subject at hand.

He was never a prude about what language our guests could use on the show, but he was prudent and always knew when to call someone for legal advice.