He was a huge Iowa Hawkeyes fan, tailgating at all football home games each season. He was known for showing his Hawkeye spirit with his striped bibs and face paint during Homecoming games. He was famous for manning the grill at the tailgate and making pregame pancakes for large crowds of people.

Denny loved running, swimming and biking, or really just the people involved. He was on the board of the Cornbelt Running Club and a host for the Wednesday night pub runs, writing the weekly newsletter. He was great training buddy to many. A natural coach and teacher, he was unselfish and patient as a race buddy. He loved nothing more than finding someone who needed help with pacing and making sure they crossed the finish line. When he decided he wanted to do triathlons, he didn’t let the fact that he didn’t know how to swim stop him. He took lessons at the Davenport YMCA and joined triathlon training groups to work on his swimming. He never let the swimming portion slow him down (much). He loved his bikes, always saying that the number of bikes a person should have was "n+1," where "n" is the number of bikes you currently have. He loved biking with the St. Ambrose team during RAGBRAI, writing the group blog and competing in the daily pie eating contest.

He had a passion for many things, including Cubs baseball, basement foosball tournaments, teaching teenagers to drive (much to the relief of their parents), Peeps, and making pecan pie, fudge and gingerbread during the holidays.