Beloved husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle, professor extraordinaire, and dear friend Denny Lee passed away peacefully at home on March 8, 2023, after a courageous and extended battle with cancer.
Denny was born in Hays,
Kansas, on April 27, 1938, to Floyd MacDowell and Freda Lee. He always
quipped that Hays was a good place to be from!
Denny was joined by his
fabulous sisters, Gretchen (Andeel) and Christie (Triplett). His
childhood summers were spent in Prairie View, Kansas, with his beloved
grandmother Cornelia (Cokie) and gramps, Art “two-beers” Denman, who
taught him how to keep bees, a lifelong passion. A precocious child, he
smoked his father’s precious WWII-rationed cigarettes and drove the
family’s Model-A Ford well before his tenth birthday. Denny attended
Hays High School and graduated both as president of the student body and
valedictorian of his class. He thought he was pretty darn hot stuff,
until his sister Gretchen did the very same, three years later. He
attended the University of Kansas where he completed his undergraduate
degree in physics in 1960 and PhD in nuclear physics in 1966. He joined
the ATO fraternity and kept close friendships with his pledge class for
more than 65 years, several of whom flew to Bozeman recently to bid
farewell to their dear friend.
He completed a two-year National Academy of Science postdoctoral fellowship in nuclear physics at the Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, and worked at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Los Angeles on the Apollo project. Denny married Susan Lee in 1965. They moved to Bozeman, Montana, in 1968, where their son Craig was born in 1972. Denny taught in the physics department at Montana State University from 1968-1993, save for a brief teaching engagement at Ball State University, upon which he vowed never to leave his beloved Bozeman ever again. He enjoyed hiking and camping, and spent several summers camping in Yellowstone National Park, where he observed geysers and treated park visitors to impromptu lectures on geyser eruptions and park geology.
Denny became a legendary professor in the physics department at MSU, where he taught generations of engineering, science, pre-med, and architecture students the required sequence of physics courses. He was among the early advocates for the establishment of the WWAMI program and created an astronomy course entitled “Mysteries of the Sky,” which is still taught at MSU. Generations of students were enthralled by his teaching and memorable in-class demonstrations. Throughout his life, Denny was routinely approached by former students who expressed their gratitude to him for his teaching, even decades after his retirement.
In 1970, Denny started consulting work as an expert witness, using the laws of physics to understand vehicular accidents and product liability cases. He worked with attorneys nationwide and truly enjoyed the challenges and sleuth-like nature of the work, summoning his gifts as a teacher to explain complicated concepts to juries. He continued his expert witness work full-time upon his retirement from MSU and became a respected and sought-after leader in the field. He particularly enjoyed working with his longtime friends Mark Baldwin, attorney John Bardelli and physicist and business partner Scott Anderson.
In addition to his intellect and great sense of humor, Denny possessed a sonorous bass voice and loved to sing. Encouraged by a retired voice professor seated next to him in church as Denny was enthusiastically singing a hymn, he decided to join the First Presbyterian Church Choir in 1992. Soon after, Denny decided to take piano lessons from the choir director, and eventually concluded that it would be cheaper to marry her, which demonstrated a rare lapse in judgment on his part. Denny and Ilse-Mari (van Wyk) were married on July 2, 1994 and were blessed with nearly 29 years of marriage. They traveled widely and enjoyed a life filled with love and joy. Denny delighted in Ilse’s achievements as a musician and composer and was especially proud of her work as dean of the Honors College at MSU, although he would add, she preferred the term “duchess.” During their early trips to Ilse’s native South Africa, Denny was able to meet several of Ilse’s family members, including her mother and grandmother (both named Barbara) as well as her brother, Waldemar, whom he loved as his own. Denny particularly enjoyed visiting the Kruger, Hluhluwe-Umfolozi and Etosha National Parks. He would have loved to return there.
Their daughter, Elizabeth, was born in 2002, and became the apple of Denny’s eye. He literally cried when she left for pre-school. Throughout the years, he listened to every cello lesson, attended every swim practice, taught her math and science, drove her back and forth to school, and instilled an abiding appreciation for literature in her. The two “pardners” kept bees and panned for gold on their two gold claims. Both Craig and Elizabeth inherited their dad’s sense of humor and fascination with the natural world, along with a love for the game of cribbage, with the attendant banter. Craig shared a passion for steam trains with his dad, both model and full-scale trains. Denny’s nephews and nieces (Michael, Jennifer, and Amy Triplett; Missy, John, Megan, and Katie Andeel) were all convinced that their beloved uncle Denny routinely spoke to Santa on his watch, resulting in model behavior during Thanksgiving dinner. The Lees traveled to Maui every year, where they found a welcoming Ohana at Keawali’i Congregational Church in Makena and established a second home in Kihei.
In 2018, on the eve of his 80th birthday family reunion, Denny was diagnosed with Myelodysplastic Syndrome, a form of leukemia. He received outstanding care in Bozeman and traveled to the Mayo Clinic, the Hutch Cancer Center (Seattle) and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center (Houston) for additional consultations and treatments. Thanks to brilliant oncologists and the advances of medical science, Denny was able to witness Elizabeth’s graduation from Bozeman High (also as a valedictorian) and matriculation to Dartmouth College. He loved visiting the campus this past fall.
To the end of his life, Denny could flawlessly recite works of literature and poetry that he had committed to memory, including this from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: “Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, it seems to me most strange that men should fear; seeing that death, a necessary end, will come when it will come.”
Denny is survived by his wife Ilse-Mari, daughter Elizabeth Marie, son Craig (Jennie) Lee, and granddaughter Ella Lee; as well as his sisters Gretchen (Stan) Andeel; Christie (Tom) Triplett, and many adoring nephews and nieces. The family wish to thank Dr. Luke Omohundro for his outstanding care of Denny over the years. We are deeply grateful to physical therapist Amy Appel, as well as to Dr. Collette Kirchhoff, Pamela Brown, Jeanette Johnson, and the entire Eden Hospice Team, for their compassionate guidance and expert care of Denny during the last months of his life. In lieu of flowers, the family would love it if you look up at the night sky, share a good laugh with a friend, or do a little something behind-the-scenes to uplift another, as Denny would have done.
A Visitation will be held from 4 to 6 P.M. on Tuesday, March 14, at Dokken-Nelson Funeral Service. A Memorial Service will be held at 2 P.M. on Wednesday, March 15, at Pilgrim Congregational Church.