He was born March 24, 1945, at Charter Oak, Iowa, to Hubert and Helen Wellner Berens. He was baptized at St. John Lutheran Church, Charter Oak, then confirmed there in 1959. He grew up on the family farm and graduated from Charter Oak-Ute High School in 1963. He attended Concordia College, Seward, Nebraska, where he met Charlyne Radke. They were married June 18, 1966, at Grace Lutheran Church, River Forest, Illinois, and graduated from Concordia in May 1967.
Denny described his career this way: a farm boy by birth, a teacher by training, a newspaper publisher by accident and a public servant by choice.
He taught in Lutheran elementary schools in Sioux City, Iowa, and Seward, Nebraska. He and Charlyne had two daughters born in Seward: Rebecca, 1970, and Rachel, 1973. He earned an M.Ed. degree from Concordia College in 1971.
In 1976, Denny and Charlyne became co-publishers of the Seward County Independent newspaper. In 1990, Nebraska Gov. Kay Orr appointed Denny head of the Nebraska State Office of Rural Health. He was active in rural health and community development issues on the state and national level and continued his involvement in those issues after he retired from the state in 2012.
He served as president of both the National Rural Health Association and the National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health. In 1997, he received a national Community Health Leadership Award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and he served on the Foundation’s award committee from 1998 until 2014. Concordia University Nebraska recognized him in 2010 with an award for Distinguished Service to Church, Community and Country. He was a lifelong member of Lutheran congregations and an active participant and leader.
Denny loved meeting and interacting with people. He liked to help people on both an individual and community level. That included his children and grandchildren for whom he regularly cooked certain favorite foods and in whose yards he dug and planted and nurtured plantings. He also loved gardening and being outdoors at home. Hunting trips with his brothers and friends were the highlights of his year. He learned to enjoy travel and the new worlds it opened – and the new people he had an opportunity to meet. He and Charlyne often marveled at the amazing opportunities and joys with which they had been blessed.
Survivors include: his wife, Charlyne; daughter Rebecca Berens Matzke and husband, Bill; daughter Rachel Berens-VanHeest and husband, Michael; grandchildren Katherine and William Matzke and Lex Berens-VanHeest; brothers and sister-in-law David Berens and Dean and Rebecca Berens; sister-in-law Jeaninne Meyer and husband, Alan; nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his father, Hubert Berens, in 2002; mother, Helen Wellner Berens, in 2017; parents-in-law, Merle Radke in 2017 and Ruth Huebner Radke in 2011.
A memorial service will be held Saturday, Jan. 10, at 11 a.m. at Grace Lutheran Church, 2225 Washington St., Lincoln.
Memorials to Grace Lutheran Church or the National Rural Health Leadership and Education Foundation, 406 W. 34th St., Suite 408-409, Kansas City, Mo. 64111.
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