DENNIS

We woke up today — and behold!
He’s half of a century old!

What does it mean?
What grist can we glean?

What sort of tale can be told?

Is adulthood now ready to claim him?
Can Canned Heat and the Band still enflame him?*

Where is the thrill?
Is it over the hill?

If it were, would society blame him?

Thirty years back we are carried
To when Dennis and Linda first married

Their marriage would bud
In Woodstockian mud

And their path would be suitably varied

In business a path started blazing
After Woodstock, perhaps it’s amazing

But great rock & roll
Hadn’t totaled his soul —

He’s rock solid (please pardon the phrasing)

TM, TTC, MIU —
The initials these two have been through!

Boys one, two, and three
Grew the family tree

And a life slowly came into view

He’s kind and goodhearted, our Dennis
(Only tamas would call him a menace)

He does a good bit
To keep himself fit:

He runs and he swims (why not tennis?)

He has so many courses to cover!
It would almost be easier to hover

But covered they get —
He hasn’t missed yet —

He manages somehow or other

His management style is ideal —
Steady is his hand at the wheel

We look, and we find:
He’s established his mind

Where the fabrics of consciousness congeal

His management style is a model
Skilled is his hand on the throttle

He’s forceful of will,
At center he’s still —

He’s unboundedness straight from the bottle

He’s a man who will never be beaten,
Whose good fortune will continue to sweeten,

Whose future is fair —
Our Management Chair

Our delightful and dear Dennis Heaton

What we’re saying — we’ll say it again — is
We know who this man among men is:

A Management Master
Who grows ever faster

He’s distinguished, he dazzling — he’s Dennis

We awaken today — and behold!
Dennis is 50 years old!

The grist? Simply this
Life is pure bliss

And Dennis is turning to gold

1997

*Dennis and Linda went to Woodstock together in 1969. When I asked him what band he liked best, he said, “Oh, I don’t know – Canned Heat.” When I pressed him further, he said, “The Band.”