Dennis M. Boddy Dies; Wasilla Resident was 61

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Category: Obituaries

Created on Wednesday, 25 May 2022 13:10

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Dennis Mitchell Boddy

Dennis Mitchell Boddy, 61, of Wasilla, passed away  May 11, 2022, in Palmer at Mat-Su Regional Hospital.

Funeral services will be held at noon on May 27 at St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Palmer. Burial will follow at Sacred Heart Cemetery.  Arrangements are by Legacy Funeral Home.  

 Dennis was born on March 5, 1961, in Juneau, to Carolyn Parkhurst and James Robert Boddy. He grew up on the beaches of Southeast Alaska, playing on the beach, throwing rocks,  and fishing with his grandparents, who helped raise him. He loved the rain and the water and every sport he tried.

Dennis attended Lathrop High School in Fairbanks, where he lived with his mom and stepfather. He was a talented runner and basketball player, excelling in high school sports and attending Sheldon Jackson College in Sitka on a basketball scholarship.

He was married to Tanna and had a daughter named Sharla. He also served as an assistant coach at his alma mater before he got a teaching and coaching job in Angoon on Admiralty Island.  

 He moved to Arizona to work for the Los Angeles Angels’ spring training camp for several years before he headed to the far north to teach fifth grade at Ipalook Elementary in Barrow. He also ran the after-school program and coordinated different community events in Barrow as well as serving as a referee for the high school and adult leagues in the North Slope Borough.

Dennis moved to Wasilla in 2004 to spend time with his Aunt Marlene and Uncle Bill McNabb.  He refereed middle school, high school, and valley youth/comp games and served as a baseball umpire until he had a stroke in 2016.

Still being very committed to having well trained and skilled referees in the Mat-Su Valley, he recruited, encouraged, and mentored referees for eight years. He also scheduled refs for every valley youth and comp game at Grizzly Family Fitness and some adult leagues as well. He took this job extremely seriously and wanted “his” refs to do the very best job they possibly could. Many of those refs respected Dennis very much and he considered them to be “his Alaskan family.” He touched  many lives through the sport of basketball.

Dennis also worked at Wasilla Auto Mall for Tom and Peg D’Agostino for the last couple years. 

Dennis will always be so gratefully remembered by the Devine family that he served in Wasilla for 15 years. His nicknames were “The Manny,”  the “Boddy guard” and “Our Dennis” because he spent his days caring for John, Allison, Andrew, Luke, Reilly, Kaley, Alysha, and Connor Devine, driving the kids to school and to practices and rehearsals, helping make lunches, grocery shopping, running errands beyond errands, and just being there in their lives to share trivia and candy. In the summer he took them fishing, camping, and to the movies. Movies were Dennis’ absolute favorite pastime, when he wasn’t watching a sporting event on ESPN. He enjoyed making bets and playing poker too.

Dennis was preceded in death by his mother, Carolyn Louise Taylor,  and stepdad,  David Taylor,  and brother Jack Boddy.

 He is survived by his first spouse, Tanna Bartlett, and daughter Sharla Kay Boddy Bartlett, and father Jim Boddy and half-siblings Christine Stocket, Kevin and Scott  Boddy of Sitka, and Jammie Kelley of Montana; as well as his adopted Devine family members.

 The family of Mike and Amie Devine extended thanks to the nurses and doctors at Mat-Su Regional and to all the staff at Maple Springs/Palmer for the great care given to Dennis.

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