Dennis Alexander Matthews passed away on Christmas Eve, 2014, at the very young age of 56. His departure from us is totally unexpected.

Dennis was the son of a career Army man; David, his father was a master sergeant who retired after 27 years of service. His mother, Dolores, was from Junction City. Dennis was born at Providence Hospital in El Paso, Texas, on July 30, 1958. In the first 12 years of his life, Dennis lived in, visited, or traveled through over 30 states and almost a dozen countries in North America and Europe.

Dennis enjoyed life in Germany. Being there gave him a taste for schnitzels that lasted his entire life. No schnitzel was safe if Dennis was around. Dennis also had a cuckoo clock in his home-another vestige of life in Germany.

When Dennis' father received his orders to return to the United States, the trip back was a memorable one: 22 hours in a DC-6 chartered by the Army. The charter carrier was Riddle Airlines. Dennis' favorite air passenger punch line: "How we got home was a Riddle!"

When the family moved back to Kansas, Dennis completed a worldwide tour of schools with his graduation from Junction City High School in 1976. He followed that up with undergraduate studies at Kansas State University, earning a degree in History in 1980.

Dennis was always interested in the military-it comes from being the son of a master sergeant-and he received his commission as a lieutenant in the United States Army after completing a course of instruction from the Kansas State University Army ROTC detachment. While still in college, he attended and completed parachute training (often referred to as jump school) at Fort Benning in Georgia. This qualified Dennis to wear the paratrooper badge for the length of his military service.

Dennis' first duty station was the Officer Infantry School at Fort Benning. While there, he met Young Rye Choi and married her in 1981. Following completion of the Infantry School, he was stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, as a mechanized infantry officer with the 1st Calvary Infantry. As a member of a headquarters unit, he acted as a leader both at Fort Hood and during various training deployments, especially in California, where his strategy and tactics allowed his unit to successfully complete their missions.

Dennis' service with the Army ended in 1982, and he and Young moved to Kansas where he earned a degree in Information Systems from Kansas State University while raising their two sons. He worked at AT&T as a computer scientist for 17 years, first in Kansas City, Missouri, and then in Atlanta, Georgia. Dennis also worked for Lockheed Martin in Omaha, Nebraska, before returning to the Kansas City area in 2012, where he began his work at Mediware in Lenexa.

Dennis' interests were varied and wide. He was a keen student of history. His formal education was made up, in part, of numerous history courses and studies, but in later life his desire to know the past also led to an interest in family history and genealogy. It was not unusual to find him discussing a grandparent, uncle or aunt, or his parents and suddenly launching into a series of questions, comments, jokes and stories about some nugget of family lore.

Dennis was a Chiefs fan, even when they weren't winning. But he didn't stop at watching sports; Dennis coached his son's football team while the family lived in Georgia. He was very proud of the fact that the team did very well while his son was a member.

Dennis was a friend to everyone he met and could strike up a conversation with anyone. He was always patient and caring and made us all feel at ease.

He was close to his two brothers and was family oriented and was consequently very happy when he was able to return to Kansas to be closer to them and their families. He was also very fond of his cousins in New Mexico, and enjoyed visiting them and his Uncle John and Aunt Betty.

Dennis loved animals; a cat or a dog could always be found within range of his lap. He became fond of boxer dogs and had a succession of them running around his house when he lived in Nebraska and Overland Park. He is greatly missed by Gina and Missy, his miniature Dachshund (Rat Dog) and Boxer (Lightning Butt), respectively, and of course, all of us.

Dennis will be remembered for his warmth, wit and dry humor. Depending on the time of day, he could either be referred to as Dennis, or Denny (when he was younger), or-if he was feeling particularly wry-"Alexander the Great." His mother, Dolores, often referred to him as Doug, or Dan, then Dennis, but that was because she kept using the wrong name for the particular son in front of her. This usually led to a great amount of giggling.

Mr. Matthews was preceded by his parents in death. He is survived by his wife Young of 33 years, of the home; son Hyung Kim (Elaine) of Salt Lake City, Utah; son Daniel Matthews of Cleveland, Ohio; brother Douglas Matthews (Helen) of Great Bend, Kansas; brother Dan Matthews (Janet), of Lawrence, Kansas; and sister-in-law Mrs. Solis, of the home. Half-brothers, David, Jr. (Peggy) lives in Dayton, Ohio; Norman lives in Mesa, AZ; Bruce (Linda) lives in Gahanna, OH. He has many cousins and other family members living in New Mexico and Ohio.

He will be missed by all of us.

Visitation and Services

The family will receive friends on December 30 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Amos Family Funeral Home, 10901 Johnson Dr. Shawnee, Kansas. The funeral services will be held on Wednesday, December 31 at 10:00 am at the same location. The burial service will follow at 12:30 pm at Leavenworth National Cemetery.