Dennis Johnson

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Dennis lived his entire life in Buffalo, New York, until graduating from the State University of New York at Buffalo with a degree in Sociology. Upon graduation in 1968, he received his commission in the US Air Force as a second lieutenant, beginning a 20-year military career.

Among his Air Force highlights: being a squadron commander of 250 airmen and officers spread across six locations in England, including his base — RAF Alconbury, near Cambridge. In Colorado Springs, Dennis led a team responsible for building a 700-page national architecture for warning systems, a top secret project that would have kept us safe from Kim Jung Un, if he’d been around at the time. Dennis retired as a Lieutenant Colonel.

During his Air Force years, Dennis managed to earn a master’s degree in telecommunications management from the University of Southern Mississippi, and an MBA from the University of Hawaii. Like most career military officers, he found new horizons in the civilian world. Dennis worked for insurance giant USAA in San Antonio as a project manager, implementing new payroll and HR systems, and leading their Internet development in the early days of the web.

His last gig before retiring for good in 2008 was with health giant Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California, where he led a massive effort to implement a new claims system. While with Kaiser, he lived in San Rafael, California, next-door to my cousin — which is how I met Dennis. There, he met and married his wife, Linda Balestreri, a yoga student and meditation teacher who’s introduced Dennis to the benefits of both. They’ve been married 18 years.

Dennis and Linda moved to Colorado Springs in 2016, in part because Colorado is an awesome place to live, and to be closer to his two daughters and two granddaughters, who all live in the Denver area.

Now 80, Dennis is a firm believer in community service. He was on the YMCA board in San Rafael for 15 years, four of those years as board chair. He’s also been involved in NPR fund raising, and volunteering with Trout Unlimited, a nationwide non-profit focused on fisheries restoration. In Colorado Springs, Dennis volunteers his time with Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, an organization dedicated to helping disabled veterans heal physically and emotionally through fly fishing.

Dennis began riding at age 55, apparently believing an AARP card was a prerequisite. He first owned a Honda 750 Shadow, then a Yamaha V-Star. Dennis formally retired from motorcycle riding in 2010, but is known to ride vicariously by following this blog.

Dennis rode with me in 2010.

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