Dennis Elder

Dennis Rodney Elder was born on August 29, 1948 in Portland, Oregon to Alonzo and Maxine Elder. In 1951 the family moved to Athena, Oregon where he lived until he left for college. Dennis was the middle of five siblings: Gordon, Tony, Dennis, Mary Jo, and Rick. Dennis is survived by his wife of 46 years, Barbara, daughter Traci (& Matt) D’Elia, sons David, CJ, Adam (& Jenna), granddaughter Bailey, and brother Rick (& Rose). Dennis joined the Falcons Drum and Bugle Corps in grade school and continued with them through high school. He loved the Corps and continued to follow contests throughout his life. While living in Illinois he helped manage a junior Drum and Bugle Corps that his son David was a part of. Growing up in farm country, he spent many summers working in the pea and wheat fields during harvest time, or in the pea packing plant. Dennis was active at church throughout his life. He was involved in his youth group at the local and state level. He also attended and worked at church camp. He led church backpacking trips, served on a camp board, and was involved in the men’s groups at church as well as taught and assisted in Sunday School classes. He started college at Linfield College in Oregon, until he had to drop out due to having had a very severe case of mononucleosis. Once recovered, he continued his studies at Portland State University until the summer of 1970, when he joined the US Navy. He served in the Navy for six years. The month before he left for boot camp he met Barbara, while on a church backpacking camping trip in the Three Sisters mountains in Central Oregon. They were married two years later. Dennis was on two West Pac cruises during his time in the Navy, which included being support in the waters off Vietnam during the later years of the war. After leaving the Navy he had a variety of work experiences in the high tech field, as a Field Service Engineer. He worked for Corning Medical, Autologic, Photon Kinetics who later became PK, Credence, and AZ Apps. These jobs took him all over the U.S. as well as all over the world as he installed, trained personnel, and repaired equipment. His work took the family to five states and many different cities over the years. In 2008 Dennis and Barb moved to Yakima where they were caregivers for Barb’s parents for several years. Dennis worked initially at Howard’s Medical and then he worked at Hanford as a Safety Trainer for a few years. In 2013 he and Barb became full time volunteer staff for Bethel Ridge Retreat for four years and then became full time staff volunteer at the Flying H Youth Ranch. Dennis loved working at the Flying H and having interaction with the boys. More than one boy talked about wanting to be on his work crews. They really liked working with him. He was able to go on a few of the outings that the boys had – the highlights being the sailing trip in the San Juan’s and the rafting trip, near Leavenworth. The out of doors has always been a part of Dennis’ life. Most vacations were camping trips. He also loved to backpack and he and Barb led several Jr. High Trail Camps through their church. For his 60th birthday he and his oldest brother and family hiked from the South to the North Rim at the Grand Canyon. He and his friend Lindsay did a ‘Geezer Hike’ from Chinook to White Pass a few years ago and were slated to do a reverse hike just two weeks after he was diagnosed with Glioblastoma. Dennis was very active at Westside Church. He loved helping in the 2 year old class and was the resident ‘grandpa’ for many of the young ones. He met weekly with a great group of men at Shari’s for breakfast and a study, and also served as an usher, and volunteered for other events as he could. Dennis had a love of life, he loved his family very much, and most importantly had a great love of God and his savior, Jesus Christ. He was a great example of living his faith to the very end. A memorial service for Dennis will be on Saturday, Feb. 2, 10:30am at Westside Church in Yakima. Dennis requested that if anyone wishes to give in his memory, that you make a donation to the Flying H Youth Ranch, in his name. To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Dennis Elder, please visit our flower store.