In 1958 Danae O'Regan, née Stanford, graduated from Trinity College Dublin with a first in French and German: contemporary tributes confirm that she was an outstanding student. She proceeded in 1960 to marry her husband and former tutor Mike, thence to arrive in Bristol in 1963 where he had been appointed lecturer in French. Danae herself taught for some years in the same department, concentrating particularly on the first-year course, while also registering for the Faculty's MA in Classical French Drama which she later completed.

In the meantime her two children Clare and John were born, and the family moved to Ravenswood Road which remained their address thereafter. Active as an A-level examiner, she taught latterly in Badminton School, and at a senior level, but remained in contact with all her previous and later colleagues in the University, to whom she offered unstinting support and hospitality over many years. Their partners in Bristol French would be unanimous in agreeing that she and Mike were a fulcrum of the social life of the department, but in fact they spread their wings into many other areas, cultivating neighbours and colleagues in several disciplines while also offering board and lodging to new arrivals and to a whole circle of contacts and friends acquired over the years.

She was later awarded a further MA, in Irish Studies, but this time at Bath Spa University where she also completed the diploma course in Creative Writing as well as going into print with material germane to her MA research. Along with her husband and a group of acquaintances she meanwhile developed an interest in hieroglyphics which she sustained long after the closure of the extra-mural course which had spawned it. In addition she was a loyal family member, a stalwart supporter of the Stanford Society and the Bristol Civic Society, a diligent charity worker, a great reader and a brilliant cook. Her later years were somewhat blighted by illness, but she made light of that affliction and retained a vigorous interest in many aspects of university life.

Highly intelligent though unfailingly modest, Danae was revered by generations of colleagues, students and friends for her warm-hearted hospitality, her unstinting support to Mike but also to the rest of the department, and for her all-round humanity, a characteristic that proved virtually immeasurable.