December 15, 1943 – September 12, 2025
Dennis Burkholder, 81, passed away peacefully Friday, September 12, 2025.
Following a private family interment at Oakland Cemetery in Forest City, a celebration of Denny’s life will be held at Sunnyside Farms on Saturday, October 11th at 6:30 p.m. Details will be shared on Bev and Heidi’s Facebook pages . . . all family and friends are invited.
Years ago, Denny wrote, “I have considered having a huge cottonwood tree placed in my memory about thirty yards in front of the fifth green at the golf course and have it surrounded by a huge gaping sand trap. The branches of this monstrous tree would knock down the shots of my old buddies and drop their golf balls right into a deep, treacherous, inescapable sand trap. Every time someone hit my monument tree with an otherwise perfect golf shot, they would think of me and say something warm and touching like ‘This tree makes me think of Denny. Boy, I sure remember him fondly!’”
Our family decided this tree and sand trap might be a controversial idea, so in lieu of flowers, plants or memorial trees with sand traps, please consider donating to the Friends of Bear Creek, a place he truly loved. Link found here, https://app.autobooks.co/pay/friends-of-bear-creek
Dennis was born in North Dakota on December 15, 1943, to loving parents Verne and Lorene Burkholder, and was the youngest brother to sisters June, Harriett, Emily and Carol, and older brother Lynn. He grew up in Rock Lake, North Dakota, where he developed his love for the freedom of rural life, unusual rocks with character, outdoor adventures with the family cannon, and excelled in basketball and baseball. He was so proud of his North Dakota roots, and this was a defining characteristic of his stories and personality his entire life, and the basis for his nickname “Noy” later in life.
Following high school, Dennis attended college with the pursuit of being an English teacher. In the spring of 1962, a 19-year-old Dennis sat in his Freshman Honors English classroom where the day’s assignment was a research paper due in one week. Six days later he began his research on his chosen topic: The Peace Corps. This research earned him a B- on his paper (good enough per DB) and planted a seed of interest, and he applied to join. Dennis was one of the first volunteers for the newly formed organization, and he joined an Agriculture and Nutrition group which served rural Colombia.
Dennis returned to North Dakota to complete his college degree at Minot State University, where he met the love of his life, Beverly. Five weeks after meeting, Dennis and Bev were married in a campus church attended by Beverly’s best friend and a foreign exchange student Dennis asked to be his Best Man, and began their 58 year marriage, at a wedding that cost the young couple $28.95. Dennis was always proud of their frugal nuptials and loved to exclaim that it only “cost $.50/year!” Dennis and Bev spent the majority of their married life in Rolla, North Dakota, and Forest City, Iowa, with cherished friends who were like family.
Dennis and Bev raised two children, Heidi and Reed, in a household full of love and laughter. Dennis loved life and taught his children valuable life lessons about the importance of family, work ethic, and a proper golf swing. His passion for creative thinking, finding humor in everyday life, love of golf and fishing, and love of searching for four-leaf clovers and golf balls was ingrained in his children and grandchildren. He knew how to balance love and encouragement with a necessary push at times, and when Reed spotted him in the stands at a basketball game and saw him rub the right side of his nose twice – it meant, “It’s go time” and would provide the needed motivation. Denny loved Heidi and Reed’s spouses for many reasons, but his love and loyalty was instantly sealed after he experienced Troy’s story-telling, creativity and craftsman skills, and after he watched with pride as Julianna holed out for an eagle on their first hole of golf together, and fell in love with her gracious heart.
Dennis had several careers throughout his life – and most were special to him. Of note, he started his early career as an English teacher, while Beverly taught in the elementary school. He was a wonderful teacher and was referred lovingly as “Mr. B”. When Heidi entered his 7th grade English classroom as a student, he exclaimed, “Some of you can call me Mr. Burkholder, or Mr. B., but only one of you can call me Daddy!” His 7th grade daughter shrunk in her seat with her cheeks flaming pink. It was this same 7th grade year that Heidi needed a science fair project, and Dennis could recall a pendulum-driven drawing toy his father had built when he was young, so he recreated it. Dennis received an A for Heidi’s science fair project and he began a pursuit to market and sell the “Pen-Doodle-Um” with a family friend, which took the two families on many cross-country entrepreneurial adventures.
A prolific writer, Denny delighted readers with his syndicated column for seven years, “Shooting the Breeze”, discussing current events, reliving childhood memories and sharing stories commemorating family events. This included the time he took his young son fishing and Reed promptly cut his finger tip with a fillet knife, fell into the tackle box and Denny had to transport Reed to the ER covered head to toe in fishing lures. In his final column, Denny announced that he had built his loyal readership clear up to three readers who had extremely low standards. He almost raised that total to five, except he lost two readers when he offended them. Popular column titles included, “There’s an old famous saying that I just made up. . . “, “Golf should be played in the fairway”, and “They told me to ‘just be yourself’ . . . I got the job anyway.” These articles are treasures for his family. Dennis spent several years as the general manager of the Winnebago-Itasca-Travelers Club, where he and Beverly traveled the country in an RV to attend rallies and manage this large national owner’s club, developing a connection with many new friends and exploring the United States.
Of all his life experiences and achievements, Papa Denny was most proud of his beloved grandchildren. He loved watching their games and activities, gently harassing referees for bad calls, pronouncing that each grandchild in any given sport was the “best”, “fastest”, “most talented” . . . and was so very proud of each of them. Finley, Cal, Tate, Tanner, Jack, and Colin were his favorite people and he was their #1 fan. Papa would spend hours formulating the perfect bubble recipe for big bubbles that didn’t pop, hung the highest swing he could hang in his tree so the appropriate dangerous distance could be achieved with one good push, was always available to play catch, spun tales to make them all laugh, and always apologized that he was the reason they may never see a Super Bowl or another World Series victory since he picked the Vikings and Twins to be the teams he led his family to love.
Beyond family, Dennis had treasured friendships with many people throughout his life – he said that, “sometimes life’s path separates us, but good friends remain good friends no matter the degree of separation”. His storytelling abilities, sense of humor, and care made his impact widespread, evidenced by the many nicknames adorned onto him . . . “Denny, Maynard, Pooh, Noy, Burk, Dipstick” . . . all (mostly) lovingly assigned. Throughout his life, he was blessed with strong friendships that lasted – boyhood adventures with friends in Rock Lake, high school and college shenanigans in basketball and baseball, Colombia adventures with other 19-year-old volunteers, our dear Rolla and Lake Upsilon family friends, our dear Fun Bunch family friends in Forest City, WIT Club members and employees, and beloved Bear Creek golfing partners. He loved his friends and his friends loved him.
Denny lived a beautiful, impactful and faithful life, and his family and friends loved him very much. We will miss him dearly, but will cherish our memories, and as his granddaughter Finley says, “Papa is our angel up in heaven now.” John 14: 1-3: “Let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”
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