Dan Cody

Dan Cody played a very influential and important role in Gatsby's life. Gatsby and Cody first met when Cody was out on his yacht and Gatsby went to warn him about an incoming storm.  He then ended up taking in Gatsby as his new assistant. In the end Cody is the one who triggered Gatsby's determination for money and wealth.

Here is the story behind them from www.fcps.edu , for more information on Cody and other characters feel free to look it up!
Jay Gatsby's legal name is James Gatz. The specific moment when he decided to change it, when he was 17, was also the moment that began his career. Dan Cody had a very big part in this moment of Gatsby's life. James Gatz had been walking along the beach in a "torn green jersey and a pair of canvas pants," but it was in fact, Jay Gatsby that interacted with Cody on that momentous day. Dan Cody's yacht dropped anchor over the most "insidious flat" on Lake Superior. When Gatsby saw this, he borrowed a rowboat, and pulled out to where Cody was on the water and warned him that the "wind might catch him and break him up in half an hour." Cody a product of the Nevada silver fields, of the Yukon, of every rush. The transactions in Montana copper made Cody a great millionaire. Cody was softminded, and naive, and many young women took advantage of this. One woman in particular, Ella Kaye, a newspaper woman, took advantage of his weakness. Over the next few years, Gatsby was steward, mate, skipper, secretary and even jailer for Dan Cody, and was very trusted by him. Through all of this, Dan Cody had an insatiable thirst for alcohol and drank continuously. Upon the return of Ella Kaye one night in Boston, Dan Cody "inhospitably died." Dan Cody did influence Gatsby in many ways; most importantly, watching Cody's excessive drinking, made Gatsby drink very little. A portrait of Cody hangs on Gatsby's wall.