Dennis was born in Frasari, Romania and immigrated to the United States following the Second World War at the age of ten.  As an immigrant, he quickly came to love this country and its values with a passion.  Above all, Dennis was a man inspired by a search for wisdom.  From an early age, he sought answers to life’s grand questions and was motivated always by a powerful desire to create a living legacy of character, goodness, and love.  He believed that life is so deep and precious that we ought to wisely spend our time on understanding the questions of character, purpose and meaning.  He touched the lives of countless students, friends and family members through his acts of generosity and kindness.  The home he created with his wife Miriam was always open to those who had need for warmth, guidance or attention. 

Dennis often explained that when charting his own life’s journey, he strove to live by the words of Socrates: the unexamined life is not worth living.    This disposition led him to enlist in the Navy for a number of years after completing high school, and then to complete college and attend graduate school.  At different times in his life, he was a university professor (New York University, Rutgers University), a small business owner, an entrepreneur and an educational director.  In all these pursuits, he strove to exemplify the qualities of character he admired so deeply: goodness, integrity, honesty, kindness, courage and love.