Aquinas College

Inducted in 2007, has had an affiliation with Aquinas College and golf that has lasted nearly 50 years. He played on strong Aquinas golf teams from 1954-1957. After turning professional in 1958, he coached the Aquinas men's team to three outstanding seasons from 1959-1961. Pupel went on to a highly successful 30-year tenure at Forest Hills Central High School where he taught and coached boys' golf during that time. He also coached the girls' golf team for 15 years. During this time, his teams won 25 league championships (including 11 in a row with the boys' squad from 1979-1990), 14 regional championships and eight state runner-up finishes. Pupel was named Michigan Golf Coach of the Year three times and was inducted into the Michigan Coaches Hall of Fame in 1991. He is currently in his seventh year as the Aquinas women's golf coach. Dan and his wife, Sheila (Smith '58), a professor who passed away in 1999, had five children and, at one time, four of them attended Aquinas simultaneously. All are Aquinas graduates. In 1988, Pupel was awarded the prestigious "Outstanding Teacher Award" from the University of Chicago. He served two terms as a Kent County Commissioner and six years on the Aquinas Emeritus Board. Pupel possesses an intense love of golf, and is still both an avid player and a patient teacher of the game.