The Curse of Oak Island star Dan Blankenship will be remembered for his perseverance in following his dreams.

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Dan, a renowned treasure hunter and reality TV star, passed away peacefully from natural causes after a long and fulfilling life last Sunday at the age of 95.

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A funeral was held for Dan on Monday, March 25 at St. Mark's Anglican Church in Martin's Point in Nova Scotia, Canada -- where Dan would often attend mass -- and roughly 120 people attended the church service, according to The Canadian Press.

The mass reportedly included a rendition of Frank Sinatra's "My Way," intended to represent how Dan had chosen to live his life.

"He enjoyed his life," Reverend Ron Barkhouse of St. Mark's Anglican Church said, The Canadian Press reported. "He had 95 years to do what he wanted to do."

Dan starred on all six seasons of The Curse of Oak Island, which premiered on History in 2014 and currently airing Tuesday nights on the network.

Dan began searching for Oak Island's alleged treasure in 1965 after he read about it in an issue of Reader's Digest while he was living in Florida.

The legend reportedly began in 1795 when teenage boys began digging at the site for a pirate's alleged buried treasure.

David Eisnor, a longtime family friend, explained how Dan initially became fascinated with searching, drilling and digging for treasure during his eulogy at the funeral service.

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David said after reading Reader's Digest, Dan asked his wife Jane to check out the article in the hope it would pique her interest.

"She handed it back to him and said, 'So what?'" David recalled, according to The Canadian Press.

After the crowd laughed, David reportedly continued, "Dan said to her, 'Well No. 1, there's treasure on Oak Island, and No. 2, I'm going to find it.'"

"It's a statement like that, in a nutshell, that summed up Dan's unbridled determination for everything that he did," David noted.

Dan eventually moved to Nova Scotia, Canada in 1970 to search full-time for Oak Island's legendary fortune and spent over 50 years doing so.

Dan reportedly left a successful contracting business in Miami behind and initially stayed at the Oak Island Motel, owned by David's grandparents.

It didn't take long for Dan to build a house on Oak Island, which he eventually co-owned with a group of investors -- including brothers Rick Lagina and Marty Lagina, who work on the site now and still star on The Curse of Oak Island.

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But Dan had other interests besides treasure hunting, as David reportedly said in his eulogy Dan was "a fisherman, scuba diver, armchair quarterback for his love of football, dancer and singer, fast food hamburger flipper, ice cream scooper, tour bus mechanic... and green-thumb gardener."

Dan also loved meeting The Curse of Oak Island fans, who would come to the island for tours, according to The Canadian Press.

"Many summers Dan never missed a tour... The fans loved chatting with Dan, getting their picture taken with him. He enjoyed that," David said.

"A new generation of Oak Island enthusiasts are now intrigued with the very same mystery that brought Dan to Canada."
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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