Dennis grew up in Northwest Missouri in a town of under 1,000 people. He learned to work with wood when his family's house burnt to the ground when he was a sophomore in high school. This created a life-long appreciation of working with wood. Dennis was lucky enough to get a scholarship to college and ran out of the same backfield with Gale Sayers. After college he had many jobs but finally settled down in a marketing job with IBM.

After retiring from IBM, Dennis started selling his woodturnings in galleries and art fairs across the Midwest. Dennis has studied under Allan Batty and Stuart Mortimer in England as well as Ray Key, Nick Cook, and Richard Raffan in the US. His work has been showcased in national and international magazines. Dennis has demonstrated and taught from Provo to England, and is currently establishing a woodturning school in Monument, Colorado. Dennis brings unique approaches to traditional twist work along with the traditional turning techniques.