Dan Dugan is generally acknowledged to be the first theatre sound designer credited by a Regional Repertory Theatre in North America. He also invented the automatic microphone mixer, the patent to which he licensed for many years to Altec Lansing and which is now manufactured by himself in a much improved and modern version.

Outside of his work as a sound engineer, he is mostly known for his work as a skeptic activist. Together with fellow skeptic activist Daniel Sabsay, at the end of the 1980s he engaged in a failed campaign to transform the San Francisco Bay Area Skeptics (BAS) into a crusading offensive grass root organization in the Bay area. <ref> Rick Moen, Bay Area Skeptics Secretary</ref> <ref> "sci.skeptic" newsgroup</ref> The campaign led to the formation of East Bay Skeptics Society as a break away group from Bay Area Skeptics.

In 1991, two years later, he engaged in a new, public campaign, now against audiophiles for claiming that audio cables with different electric properties also lead to different sounds. In an article in the Journal Stereophile at the time, "Audio McCarthyism", the reporter compared his argumentation in the campaign to that used by Senator Joseph Raymond McCarthy at the beginning of the 1950s. <ref> Audio McCarthyism Stereophile, January, 1992</ref>

Later, he has engaged in a 10 year long public campaign against Anthroposophy and Waldorf schools, and the public funding of Waldorf methods schools, claiming that this violates the the "church and state" establishment clause of the First Amendment. In 1995, he co-founded and since the is Secretary of People for Legal and Non-Sectarian Schools (PLANS), an anti-Waldorf and anti-Anthroposophy lobby group based principally in San Francisco, USA and on the Web.

After starting its public anti-Waldorf campaign in 1997 by picketing outside a Waldorf methods school, and accusing it of teaching the pupils witchcraft <ref> School is teaching witchcraft, critics say Sacramento Bee, May 16, 1997</ref> <ref> Editorial: The attack on Oak Ridge Sacramento Bee, June 10, 1997</ref>, since 1998, PLANS is engaged in a law suit against two California public schools districts, Sacramento City Unified School District and Twin Ridges Elementary School District, for their funding of two Waldorf-methods schools, alleging that a primary purpose and primary effect of the operation of the two Waldorf-methods schools by the school districts was "to advance religion, including the religious doctrines of Anthroposophy". <ref> PLANS' Lawsuit</ref>

In 1999, the U.S. District Court -- Eastern District of California ruled against the main allegation in the law suit, and again in 2005 after a trial to investigate whether anthroposophy is a religion ruled for the school districts, finding that PLANS did not present one admissible witness or piece of evidence, and ending the trial, planned to run for 16 days, after 30 minutes. PLANS has appealed the decision. <ref> The PLANS Litigation Americans for Waldorf Education</ref> Today (2006), there are 19 Waldorf methods schools in California.

References

<references/>