Dennis Rowe Steinhoff

He was born in Greeley, Colorado and raised on a farm in Ault. He met Glenda Cook while attending Ault High School and they married in December of 1952.

At the age of 17, he joined the US Marine Corps and trained at Camp Pendleton and Del Mar in the tank division. He was deployed to Okinawa, Japan, then on to Korea. His time in the Marine Corps was difficult and many things haunted him throughout his life. He was always a Marine and held the Corps in the highest regard. Denny was a red-blooded patriot through and through, posting the US flag outside his door daily. One time, he asked to have Taps downloaded to his phone so that he could blast his Fort Collins neighborhood at sunup! Unfortunately, he couldn’t get the volume to go high enough!

After the Marine Corps, he returned to Colorado and took control of a farm at Pierce. He loved farming, but after a few years, he was ready to try ranching. He and his dad purchased the Williams Ranch in Livermore in 1962. They ran Hereford cattle, several horses, put up their own hay and they leased federal land in the high country near Sheep Creek. Each year the herd would be driven to the high-country summer pasture. These cattle drives were a hallmark of Denny’s ranching career. Relatives and friends would join him on the cattle drives and the preceding branding day. He loved the high-country and recently visited the area where he ran his cattle and his favorite mountain spring for a refreshing taste of real Rocky Mountain Spring water.

Denny sold the Livermore ranch and bought a larger ranch in Douglas, Wyoming. It had large, irrigated fields for plenty of crops. He grew corn and alfalfa/grass hay mostly. He sold many tons of hay and stored ground corn in feed silos. The corn was fed to his cattle held in the feedlot during the fall and winter. The work was hard, days were long, the weather was a constant challenge, and the market stunk.

In 1982, he sold the Douglas ranch and semi-retired. He and Glenda bought an RV and traveled the west for about a year, eventually buying on a small farm in Riverton, Wyoming. They bought a shoe store, which Glenda ran, and Denny continued raising Hereford cattle, running them on the “Muddy Ridge permit” and in Colorado. Due to his health conditions, he reluctantly sold the last of his cattle a few years later. During his “Riverton days,” he enjoyed going on horse pack trips into the Wind River mountains and the Yellowstone area with Glenda and friends.

Wanderlust struck Denny again a few years later, sending them to Bayfield, Colorado and then to Pueblo West, Colorado. While they lived in Pueblo West, they truly began to enjoy their retirement, and made many dear friends. Glenda passed away while in Pueblo West, in 2018. They had just celebrated 65 years of marriage. Dennis then moved to Fort Collins, to be closer to family.

Dennis loved his life as a cattleman, rancher, farmer and patriot. He appreciated the honesty and purity of hard work, a good steady rain, a trustworthy horse and a compliant cow. He was brutally honest--he never screwed anyone. Denny expected the same from everyone, once anyone lied to him, or betrayed his trust, he never trusted them again. His honesty was total.

He is preceded in death by his wife Glenda and his brother William Steinhoff and leaves three children, Christy Bradley, James Steinhoff III, and Rae Lynn deBoer. He also leaves six grandchildren, two great-grand children and a niece and nephew.

A celebration of life for Dennis will be held Monday, August 18, 2025 at 1:00 PM at Allnutt Funeral Service - Drake Road Chapel, 650 W. Drake Rd., Ft. Collins, CO 80526.