Dennis Yarbrough, 78
Dennis was born on June 9, 1943, and passed away due to Alzheimer’s on May 19, 2022, at Buffalo Hill Terrace.
He was born in Decatur, Illinois, to parents J.D. and Mildred Yarbrough. Dennis spent his schooling years in Decatur where the family home was located next to the coal yard and nearly on the train tracks. He was an only child who loved school. He chose Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, for college where he majored in accounting. He graduated from Drake with high honors and was invited to interview with all the big three accounting firms at that time. He chose Arthur Young in Dallas and knew no one when he arrived in the city. He worked on the Texas Instruments audit for his first six years, and it was a great opportunity. During his time at Texas Instruments, he met many young men with two degrees and saw the advantage of higher education and so took the GMAT and applied to the University of Chicago and was accepted. After graduating with his Master of Business Administration degree, he went back to work at Arthur Young in their Chicago office. After three years he was assigned an audit project at the Wrigley Company which took three months. During that time, he learned that they were going to hire a corporate controller and he applied. He was interviewed and there were many competitors who were also applying for the position. Dennis interviewed on a Friday with Mr. Wrigley and on Monday received a call offering him the job.
Dennis built a strong team of young people and was able to get several of them into the University of Chicago MBA program. The market opportunity was ripe with the fall of the wall in Germany in 1989 and as a market leader Wrigley Company moved quickly into East Europe as well as China. Dennis traveled abroad and hired new colleagues who became very good friends.
Dennis served on many boards throughout his life and in Chicago was instrumental in helping establish Chicago City Day School in the heart of the city where he served as treasurer.
In March of 1997 he retired from the Wrigley Company and moved west. Everyone in Chicago thought he was crazy, but he felt this was a change that was needed in his life at that time. A year after living in Bigfork his neighbors introduced him to Bugsy who was living in Kalispell. They married in November of 2000 and established a wonderful life together with much travel and a growing list of friends. They attended the Church of Creston where Dennis’s love for the Lord grew.
Dennis was a kind and gentle man, generous from the heart, and a man who cared and respected people and their lives. It did not matter who they happened to be, he gave equal care and compassion to all who were fortunate enough to cross his path. He bestowed values of fairness, integrity, loyalty and dependability. He was a man of his word and one you could count on for anything. He loved young people and was always wanting to help them achieve their dreams and goals.
In Montana he served on the Children’s Theatre board, as well as the Junior Golf program at Eagle Bend.
He is survived by his wife Cheryl “Bugsy,” his son Dennis H. Yarbrough (Jennifer) and two stepchildren Ginger Rosenbauer (Brett) and Ryan Jorgensen (Shelley), and five grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by both his parents, and one grandson Gabriel Rosenbauer who died in infancy.
A service will be held at The Church of Creston at 5447 Highway 35 Kalispell, at 1 p.m. on Thursday June 9.
In lieu of flowers, memorials can be made to Bigfork Playhouse Children’s Theatre, P.O. Box 456, Bigfork, MT 59911; or Eagle Bend Junior Golf Association, P.O. Box 1257, Bigfork MT 59911.