Mike Dennison
Mike Dennison (Mr. Book), 74, Lawrence, KS, formerly of Kansas City, MO, passed away Wednesday, April 24, 2013. Born Ronald Richison in July 1938, in Kansas City, he was adopted and given the name Robert Michael Dennison. He attended school in Fulton, MO, graduating from high school in 1956. He earned bachelor and master of arts degrees in English at the University of Missouri, interrupted by a brief stint in the Missouri National Guard. Mike taught in Missouri public schools before taking a civilian post teaching our troops in Vietnam, Korea, and Japan. After returning to the States he had a peripatetic career selling books; first college textbooks for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt throughout Colorado and the Midwest, and then reference books to Kansas and Missouri libraries for Scribner and Oxford University Press. On a sales call to the Marysville, KS, public library, he met librarian Sally Hayden in 1980; they married in 2001.
His avocations were photography, birding, woodworking, and cultivating daylilies. With retirement and a move to Lawrence he worked part-time in several Lawrence garden centers, transformed Sally and his front yard into a garden, and walked their beloved dog Hank. Mike was a fan of Mizzou basketball, the Kansas City Royals, Lyle Lovett, and ice cream.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Paul Dennison and Miriam Lose Dennison, and his stepmother, Marjorie Whan Dennison. Mike leaves his wife, Sally Hayden, Lawrence, all the Hayden family, and friends in Lawrence and Kansas City.
Following Mike's wishes, family and friends gathered in Lawrence to reminisce, in lieu of a formal service. Please remember Mike with a memorial to National Alliance on Mental Illness, www.nami.org or 406 W. 34th St., Ste. 506, KCMO 64111, or to Imagination Library found at www.imaginationlibrary.com or by mail at 328 Pratt Street, Longmont, CO 80501.
(Arrangements: Joseph A. Butler & Son, 913-371-7000, www.butlerandson funeralhome.com)
Please sign this guestbook at Obituaries.LJWorld.com.
To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.
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