Dennis Allen Wynne

Wynne, Dennis Allen Loved by many, Dennis Allen Wynne left planet earth to soar beyond this universe October 12, 2019. Dennis was born in Bemidji, MN on June 13, 1935 to Everett Wynne and Marie Jacobson Wynne and spent his first year in the last logging camp on Isle Royale where his father was the foreman.

He is preceded in death by his mother, Marie; aunt, Edith and dear friend, Gustav Carlson who helped raise him. He is survived by wife, Pamela Parker; sons, David Weeks-Wynne (Robin) Irvine, CA, Daniel (Silvia) Homestead, FL, Michael (Susan Curry) Minneapolis and Scott Parker, Roosevelt, MN; grandchildren, Nicole, Diana, Renee, Daniel, Riley, Sage and Kyra; and dear friend, David Nelson along with many cherished relatives, friends and colleagues.

He graduated from Bemidji HS, received his English Literature degree from BSU and his MSW from the U of M. He was a lumberjack, pulp truck driver and country singer in his youth and served 6 years in the MN National Guard. He worked with native youth at Red Lake and for the BIA in Alaska, where he organized resettlement of a community wiped out by a tsunami and fished with native fisherman on the Kenai Peninsula. In the 1960s he was a community organizer and civil rights advocate with the Urban League and Unity Settlement on Mpls' Northside. As the Dr. of Community Services for the Mpls Housing Authority, he introduced the city to resident participation, pioneering it before it became the prevailing model. He has been credited as the architect of the Mpls neighborhood organization system and wrote the federal regulations for neighborhood councils. He was serving as the first Family Advocate for Family & Children's Services, when he met his wife Pam and helped her organize resident councils in nursing homes. As a consultant with Alternative Behavior Associates he worked with correctional institutions on restorative justice. In 1978 he and dear friend Bruce McBeath co-founded the Psychosynthesis Institute of MN, where Dennis shared his generous spirit with spiritual seekers, psychotherapy clients and students over several decades. He expanded Psychosynthesis applications within personal and organizational contexts in the Upper Midwest, Canada and other parts of the US. He was a gifted psychotherapist, educator and thinker with an eclectic and curious intellect and a never-ending passion for social justice and human rights, spiritual traditions and pathways, world view paradigms, astro-physics and the search for other life forms in the universe, the need for wisdom of Sophia-the feminine in today's culture, and the juxtaposition of science, spirituality and psychic phenomenon.

A Renaissance man, he played the guitar, sang, recited poetry and loved theatre and opera but could drive a tractor, fix a truck, build a deck or cut down a tree. He was a teacher, community builder, healer and guru to many. He strove for wisdom and knowledge and was driven by love and justice. Most of all he was uniquely able to see deeply into people's souls to understand who they truly were, and to convey unconditional love, forgiveness and acceptance with his adage "Love is Life's Secret".

Celebration of Life Friday 11/8 at Walker Community Church, 3104 16th Ave. S. Mpls. 10:30 AM. Private interment at Lakewood Cemetery. Memorials preferred to Emerge Community Development, emerge-mn.org.