Dennis passed away peacefully at home, with his family by his side on Sunday, March 25th, 2018 at the age of 65 years.
Born on March 14 or PI day (3.14), a day he also shares with Albert Einstein and the day on which Stephen Hawking left this universe. Unlike these two, Dennis was the true consummate Renaissance man throughout his too short a life that still had so much promise.
As a child born and growing up in London, Ontario, he had an adventurous spirit and sometimes lived up to the comic character “Dennis the Menace". He was a "down the hill” explorer, digger of 6 ft. holes in our backyard to bury time capsules which he would dig up just a couple years later. He was a child performer in the King and I, excelled at school skipping a grade and an excellent swimmer which later led him to lifeguard summer jobs. He earned a degree at the University of Calgary and was a global traveller circumventing the world on his own, taught English in Korea, became a Chartered Accountant and was a masterful chef, baking bread and desserts, king of the grill and made preserves including dill pickles from his Mom’s special recipe. He was a generous and gracious host at family parties and get-togethers that he and Gloria would throw (even putting on firework displays at a local park), a bargain hunter extraordinaire, an avid botanist and gardener and a home renovator. Dennis was an action movie fan and gamer, amazing competitive chess player, camper and keeper of the family lore. He had an overall generosity and kindness that was hard to beat, and so much more.
He was a devoted son to both his parents Jiro and Lucy going the extra mile every time to help them out. But his greatest accomplishment was a chance meeting with Gloria Chiu on a bus tour in China and eventually getting her to agree to marry him and of course their greatest achievement, their son Jonathan, their pride and infinite joy. Dennis was so very fond of Gloria’s sister Helen and her husband Kevin who also became his closest and dearest friends.
Dennis leaves behind his beloved Gloria and Jonathan, his mother Lucy, siblings Sharon (Bill), Joel (Nancy), Glen, Brenda (Jeff) along with nieces and nephews (Maui, Brad, Emma, Margaret, Jordan and Chloe), brothers and sisters in-law Kevin, Helen, Peter and Mary, and aunts Jean and Sally and uncles Harry and Roy plus many many cousins in Canada and Japan.