Air Force chaplain, Lt. Col. Jon Wuerffel, and his wife, Lola, a former schoolteacher who assisted Jon as an organist and choir director wherever the service sent them. So Danny and his older sister, Sara, grew up in places such as Myrtle Beach, S.C.; Torrejón, Spain; and Colorado Springs. Their home was full of laughter, about which Jon was something of an expert. He studied marriage and family life for his Ph.D. at Nebraska and did his dissertation on the relationship between humor and a family's strength. ("Healthy humor, the kind that does not bite and tear people down, predominates in strong families," he wrote. "Weaker families use less humor, and it's digging and more sarcastic")  Jon was the Air Force masters (over 40) racquetball champion in 1986, and he taught his son the game. And while living at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Jon and Danny spent hours riding dirt bikes through the Rocky Mountains, racing full-bore around and over perilous rocks, gullies and fallen trees.