Joe Frank Drennan Jr.

The Drennans were an entrepreneurial family. Joe grew up helping deliver flowers for Marilyn’s Flowers and Gifts, his mother’s business. After graduating from Cherry Creek High School in 1971 Joe became assistant manager of the family’s second Bronco Burgers fast food restaurant in the new Buckingham Square Shopping Center.

One of the perks of working at the mall was the girls, who also worked at the mall. There was this one particular girl who worked at Joslins; thigh-length brown hair and miniskirts that ended where her thumbs hit her legs. When Joe finally asked her out, the response was surprising. “I’m sorry. I will be in Paris this weekend.” Jackpot! An older woman with money. He was wrong on both counts. Pam had worked and saved to spend Spring Break in France her senior year of high school.

Pam made a point of reconnecting with Joe shortly after her return. When he picked her up for their first date, Pam’s Mom knew it was all over. Joe drove a baby blue 1966 Ford Mustang Fastback, the car Pam had Ooooh’d and Aaaah’d over every time she saw it on the street.

Joe and Pam were married on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 1973. They welcomed their only child, Angela Jeannine, on August 27, 1977.

When Angie was three months old, they opened The Bookworm in Westminster Mall. Owning and operating a retail bookstore that was open, 11 hours six days a week and five hours on Sunday, developed interesting dynamics for the young family. If both Pam and Joe were working, Angie was at the bookstore with them, napping in the backroom or greeting customers from her perch on the counter; except on Saturdays when she was with Grandma. If only one parent was working, the other parent had the baby. Joe and Pam split equally bookstore and Angie duties. Joe changed more diapers, made more bottles, and gave more baths than any father in that era.

The Bookworm closed in 1980. Before and after The Bookworm Joe worked in auto parts, first at NAPA and then at various dealerships in the Denver metro area.

When President Ronald Reagan fired the air traffic controllers in 1981, Joe began his pursuit of employment with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Applications were submitted repeatedly. Reams of forms were completed. His background was investigated and his employers and neighbors interviewed. Finally, in January 1986 he got the call, “This is the Alaska Region FAA calling with a job offer for Joe Drennan.” At age 32 Joe was too old to be a tower controller. He was hired as a Flight Service Station Specialist.

Within days of that phone call, Joe was catapulted into 17 weeks of intensive training at the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center in Oklahoma City. Pam and eight-year-old Angie remained in Denver, condensing the possessions from 13 years of marriage into a five-by-eight-foot trailer for the impending move. Joe dealt with the pressures of the FAA Academy, cramming for exams in weather observations, in-flight weather, traffic advisories, and search-and-rescue operations. The Academy was pass/fail. Fail one test and you’re out.

Anticipation became dismay when Joe’s travel orders were finalized one day before graduation. After completing his on-the-job training in Fairbanks, Joe’s first duty station would be Tanana. Located 110 air miles from Fairbanks, the village was not accessible by road. When Joe and Pam expressed their concern about moving their daughter to the Alaska Bush, FAA personnel assured them, “Tanana is just like any other small town in America. Besides, you can bid out in a year.” Having invested too much to turn back now, the Drennans accepted the challenge and began their adventure, 3,181 miles north to the Alaska Bush.

Joe quickly checked out in all phases of his new position, and in August 1986 the family was ready to embark on the final leg of its journey. Tanana, Alaska, here they come! Located at the confluence of the Yukon and Tanana Rivers the native village was home to 350 Athabascan Indians. It was rapidly apparent that their 1940s vintage government housing was “uptown” in Tanana. (We had electricity and indoor plumbing - hot and cold running water.) Most of the homes were nothing more than huts and cabins. Banked on the south by the Yukon River, the village was three blocks deep and two miles long. There were few modern conveniences. Electricity was provided by the town’s diesel generator. There was no running water. Villagers carried water from two well houses on the riverbank. Sewage facilities were comprised of outhouses and “honey” pots. Showers could be purchased at the laundromat. Two stores, an elders home, the jail, a church, a day-care center, the post office, the liquor store, a K-12 school with 45 total students, and a haunted hospital rounded out the town’s offerings. Tanana was not “like any other small town in America.”

However, the Alaska adventure was the most remarkable experience of their lives. The activities will fill a book which Pam is currently writing.

• Joe waving to his family on the bank as he floated downstream in a disabled boat on the mile wide Yukon River.

• Joe chopping down trees in – 30° temperature with a native friend, loading the logs onto a sled pulled by a snow machine, and hearing the Yukon ice cracking beneath them under the weight.

• Joe flying with a coworker, landing on a sandbar, and being transported to and from fish camp in a canoe.

• Exploring the vast wilderness.

• Sitting at their dining room table and watching the Aurora borealis scintillating across the night sky.

• Touring the state with Pam’s parents and sister Tami. A state ferry ride presented a spectacular view of the Columbia Glacier and Prince William Sound before the Valdez disaster.

When Joe flew into Fairbanks for his annual FAA physical, he discussed bid opportunities with his supervisor, who expressed surprise that Joe thought he would be able to leave Tanana at the end of one year. “It will be more like three to five years before you can bid out of the Bush.” Three to five more years in Tanana would cripple Angie’s education and social skills. What had seemed like a dream come true had become a nightmare. Joe, Pam, and Angie boarded a Bush plane out of Tanana one year to the day after they had arrived, returning home to Colorado, where they picked up where they had left off.

Joe was always as supportive of Pam’s endeavors as she was of his. Upon their return Pam decided to seek a bachelor’s degree and began taking college courses. Co-parenting (while still married) put Joe behind the wheel often for pick-up and drop-off of Angie for school and her many activities. It also allowed father and daughter to build a unique bond.

In 1990 Pam was offered a promotion at Paradyne. The job was based in Orange County, California. In advance of the move the family made a trip to find their new home, which had a pool in the backyard. While Pam was in Florida in business meetings, Joe and Angie took a road trip from Denver, through the Grand Canyon to Las Vegas, where they spent the night at Circus! Circus!, arriving in Los Angeles in time to pick Pam up at the airport. There was no downsizing this time. The company sent in movers to pack and unpack.

California was a fun adventure. Disneyland, Knot’s Berry Farm, the beach. Spending the night in the desert to watch Space Shuttle Discovery land just after dawn. But there’s no place like home, which for the Drennans was Colorado. When the opportunity presented itself, Pam transferred locations and they went home, where they would remain.

At the age of 87 Pam’s grandmother Hallie reached a point where she could no longer live in her home alone. The rest of the family was making plans to move Grandma to a nursing home, instead Pam and Joe suggested they bring Hallie to live with them. Joe had been discussing starting an online business and this was his opportunity. For two-and-a-half years Joe was Hallie’s primary caregiver. When Grandma had an appointment, Joe would pick her up like a doll to transfer her from wheelchair to car and back again.

Joe then re-entered the airline business, this time as a customer service representative taking calls for Continental Airlines. He enjoyed the job and the flight benefits. However, Continental used 9/11 as a reason to close the Denver reservations center. Joe had his choice of assignments in Tampa, Houston, or Newark. Having learned the lesson twice before, at this point Joe considered himself retired.

Joe was never bored. He had plenty of hobbies to keep him busy. Joe owned eight telescopes, one of which has a 13 ½ inch mirror and is as tall as Pam. He watched the sky for hours – day and night – using a solar filter to view the sun; joined by raccoons watching him from under the evergreen trees at night. On one trip to Hawaii’s Big Island, celebrating Angie’s and her best friend Stacy’s high school graduation they visited the telescopes at 13,800 feet on Mauna Kea.

Joe and Pam were both sun chasers; driving and flying to experience solar eclipses:

• 1994 St. Louis, Missouri, Annular Eclipse

• 2017 Glencoe, Wyoming, Total Solar Eclipse

• 2023 Albuquerque, New Mexico, Annular Eclipse

• 2024 Cape Girardeau, Missouri, Total Eclipse

Joe was a cyclist. Weather permitting, he put hundreds of miles on his Trek DCLV Carbon Fiber Road Bike. The Tour de France was a must see on TV each year.

A NASCAR fan in his youth, Joe’s taste in auto racing matured to Formula 1. He watched each race from practice runs through qualifying, and sprints. Pam always joined him to watch the main race.

When grandson Dylan was born, Joe watched him a day and a half a week. (Pam was jealous.) When Joe and Pam gave Angie and Aaron their Denver Broncos tickets it was with the stipulation that they would drop off Dylan and Connor at Mama and Papa’s house on the way to the games. Joe attended the grandsons’ athletic events – basketball, baseball, soccer, and flag football. The entire family enjoyed Christmas getaways at the Gaylord.

Joe and Pam traveled mostly domestically – Scottsdale, Lake Tahoe, Napa (to name a few favorites); but also internationally, visiting Aruba, Cancun, and Jamaica. Most often their travels took them to Hawaii. A little house in the rain forest of Kauai became their favorite destination away from home. Spring Break 2024 they took the whole family – Joe, Pam, Angie, Aaron, Dylan, and Connor – to River Estate on Kauai, where Joe and Pam had stayed previously three times, to celebrate Dylan’s high school graduation.

In 2007 Joe was diagnosed with non-ischemic dilated cardio myopathy. His heart was enlarged, the illness from which his mother died. Standard of care for this condition didn’t work for Joe. Even a pediatric dose of the beta blockers just made him feel worse. But Joe continued cycling.

In 2013 Joe was added to the heart transplant list. In September 2014 Joe’s heart gave out before a donor was available. An LVAD (Left Ventricular Assist Device) was implanted. Joe no longer had a heartbeat, because the heart pump constantly circulated blood through his body. Pam maintained the open wound in his side through which the wires connected to external batteries.

In November 2014 Joe got the call, “We have a heart.” Twenty-four hours post-transplant they pulled the ventilator tube. They quizzed Joe. “What’s your name?” Joe Drennan. “Do you know where you are?” The hospital. “Do you know why you are here?” Yes, to Save the World.

When Angie wheeled Joe out of the hospital to take him home post-transplant he blasted “Ironman” on his phone.

Over the next 11 years they learned that transplant trades one set of problems for another. Joe’s donor heart was beating strong as he neared the end of his life.

However, people taking immunosuppressants to prevent organ rejection are two to three times more likely to have cancer. Stage 1 Lung Cancer successfully treated with radiation in 2023 metastasized to bone cancer. Joe fractured his C2 vertebrae and rib #9 in a recent fall.

Joe was a man of strong convictions and conspiracy theories. He wasn’t always comfortable to be around, because he wanted to debate subjects in which his beliefs were 180° from standard thinking. It is interesting how many times Joe’s seemingly bizarre theories were proven to be true. Even Pam’s parents once commented, “Joe was right again.”

One of the last lucid things Joe said to Pam, “The earth is flat.” She agreed. Joe and Pam attended their first flat earth conference in 2018. Joe attended two after that and had registered to attend this year’s conference but was too ill to travel. Joe was so committed to this belief that a Biblical verse referencing flat earth is engraved on the Drennan tombstone - Psalms 19:1 King James Version. Genesis to Revelations - there are more than 200 Biblical verses supporting the scientific proof of a flat earth.

Pam and Angie were with Joe when he passed away at home on December 22, 2025. There is no more pain. Joe’s family will be forever grateful to his donor and the doctors who saved his life and gave them eleven bonus years with Joe.

Joe was proceeded in death by his parents, Joe and Marilyn Drennan; and best friend of 50 years, Bobby Bills. When Pam and Angie called Bobby to let him know of Joe’s passing, his son answered the phone. Bobby passed away that same morning. The family asks that you extend your thoughts and prayers to Bobby’s family.

Joe is survived by his wife, Pamela; daughter, Angie Johnston; son-in-law Aaron Johnston; grandsons, Dylan and Connor Johnston; and beloved cats – Vincent, Bandit, Pearl, and Gabby.

Joe was a radio guy – CB handle J.D. Raspberry, Ham Radio Call Sign NØORQ. Over the decades Joe spoke with Ham Radio operators in more than 100 countries and exchanged postcards with most. A final signoff was sent into the Ham Radio ionosphere on December 22, 2025.

November Zero Oscar Romeo Quebec [pause]

November Zero Oscar Romeo Quebec [pause]

No contact. November Zero Oscar Romeo Quebec Silent Key.

73s (Goodbye) and Godspeed.