Dennis was born on October 09, 1940, in Seattle, Washinton, where he lived with his family until they relocated to Fairbanks in 1951 when Dennis was 11. The family included parents George E. "Pappy" and Edna Mae Wise, and older siblings George Wise and Joan Wise Bovee.

Fairbanks remained home to Dennis for the next 50 plus years. As a boy, he attended local schools, held all manner of after school jobs, including 2nd Ave shoe shine boy, bakery worker, farm field hand, paper boy and Quality Meat driver, and still managed to get into plenty of boyish mischief with his friends.

After graduating from Lathrop High School, class of 1959,

and serving in the Alaska National Guard, Dennis followed his father and brother into the plumbing trade. Within just a few short years he went from apprentice to foreman to owning his own mechanical contracting company in 1965.

Always curious, energetic and up for the next challenge, it wasn't long before Dennis expanded his enterprise into general contracting...

...and property development and management, both in Fairbanks and in Arizona.

Dennis' wife, Mary (Green) had an adventurous, somewhat gypsy childhood of travel. She was born into a United States Air Force family in Denver, Colorado, on October 25, 1947, the third child of Marvin and Sophie Green, with siblings Shirley Crocker and Charles Green.

The family moved frequently, residing in many interesting places throughout the states and in Europe, finally settling down in Fairbanks in 1959, after having been stationed at Ladd AFB.

As a young woman, Mary worked many years for the City of Fairbanks in the Building Department and later as Deputy City Clerk, and for the State of Alaska as a Wage and Hour/Labor Law Advocate.

Matchmaker friends reintroduced Dennis and Mary in 1973. They remembered each other from high school days and Dennis' rather adventurous dealings with the City of Fairbanks Building Department, where Mary worked in the 1960s. She fondly remembers his refreshing optimism, mischievous enthusiasm and twinkling blue eyes from those days. They found that they shared many values and interests and have been inseparable ever since.

Dennis became a loving and devoted father to Mary's daughter, Jill Conway, who was just seven years old when they met.

After years of persuasive urging by Dennis, Mary left government employment in 1977 to assist him in his entrepreneurial pursuits. Together they founded Tri-General Construction, Inc., Fountainhead Development, Inc. and numerous other businesses through which Dennis' lifelong love of building was fulfilled.

In the early years, they specialized primarily in building and operating apartment complexes, hotels and industrial properties. Later, their interests expanded to include commercial properties in the Phoenix area

and condominiums in Bellingham, Washington.

Click here to see Dennis' Darby Estates website

Most recently, semi-retired, the couple has also expanded their long time philanthropic activities to concentrate on charitable building projects in Fairbanks, including the local Food Bank, Rescue Mission, Center for Women and Children, and the Resource Center for Parents and Children.

(Buildings pictured above: Wise Family Center, Fairbanks Community Food Bank, Fairbanks Rescue Mission)

Today, Dennis and Mary divide their time between their summer home and boat, "Mary's Promise III" in Bellingham, Washington, and their home in Paradise Valley, Arizona, where many of their extended family and longtime friends from Fairbanks come for visits.

They spend their happiest hours with daughter, Jill, and their beloved grandsons Michael Meath II, 15 and Nicholas, 9, who all also reside in Paradise Valley.