Dennis Heck had a talent for making people feel comfortable, his friends and co-workers say.
“He had a mannerism about him that said, ‘You are welcome in my life,’ and you immediately trusted him with whatever issue or problem you were having,” retired pastor Jack King said.
Mr. Heck died June 1 at age 73 of complications from bone cancer. An ordained minister, he served as a full-time chaplain at Mercy Hospital Jefferson in Crystal City for more than 30 years.
He started a grief support group that still meets at the hospital and was the driving force behind the annual fundraising auction for the Chaplain’s Fund charity.
Mr. Heck grew up on the family farm outside Perryville, and he and his brothers, Darrell and Kerry, helped out on the farm and enjoyed rural life, playing all kinds of sports.
“We played Wiffle ball in the back yard, and neighborhood kids would come and play tournaments,” Darrell said. “Denny had a wicked pitch that almost nobody could hit.”
In 1964, the family moved to Perryville where the boys took up less rural pursuits.
“Denny played bass in a band with some cousins. They were called Little Buck and the Buckaroos,” Darrell said. “They played all around the area. All the relatives would go and watch, have a good time.”
Mr. Heck developed his lifelong love of cars early.
“Grandpa bought Denny a ’55 Chevy Bel-Air, and he took us to school,” Darrell recalls. “He always liked cars and wanted to have the hottest model. He had a ’66 Pontiac GTO four-speed, later a bright orange Porsche 911 he was real proud of. He even had a Kharmann Ghia at one point.”
After graduating from Perryville High School, Mr. Heck attended the University of Missouri in Columbia and Southeast Missouri State before entering seminary in Iowa, where he developed a lifelong loyalty to the Iowa Hawkeyes.
His first job was as associate pastor at a Methodist church, but the death of his sister in 1981 brought Mr. Heck to Jefferson County.
“He decided he would move closer, and he got the chaplain job at the hospital,” Darrell said.
John Winkelman was working at a local newspaper when Mr. Heck began writing a church news column.
“That was my first association with him,” Winkelman said. “When I went to work at the hospital in 2003, he was a welcoming face and a guide for me for many years. We worked together on the chaplain auction, and we coordinated many other activities for the chaplain’s fund.”
Mr. Heck wrote a daily devotional that was broadcast to patients and staff.
“It was a ‘Thought of the Day’ kind of thing,” Winkelman said. “He wrote some, and coordinated the ones written by others, myself included.”
King recalls Mr. Heck as an effective teacher and communicator.
“My last year in seminary I took a class called ‘Ministry Outside the Church,’ and Dennis volunteered to be my mentor,” King said. “I worked with him for three months in the chaplain’s office, so I got to know him on a personal level. If someone needed a listening ear or a shoulder to cry on, he was always there. He helped me in my ministry and was a great influence in my life and the lives of others.”
King said Mr. Heck had a knack for bringing people and groups together.
“Oftentimes, groups compete for limited resources, and it can cause friction. But he was a calming presence and was able to bring them together in a non-competitive way,” King said. “He guided people to work together for a common good.”
Winkelman recalls one of Mr. Heck’s most effective techniques.
“There’d be all these busy people come bustling in, getting ready to start a meeting,” he said. “Dennis would say, ‘Take a deep breath, hold it and let it out slowly and let it calm you before we begin.’ It’s a practice I implement to this day.”
As he got older, Mr. Heck remained a sports enthusiast, although he switched from his beloved tennis to pickleball. He enjoyed good health into his 70s.
“We always said Dennis would outlive all of us,” Darrell said. “He watched what he ate; never smoked; drank nothing but a glass of wine once in a while, exercised regularly. When he got sick, we all were just floored.”
Mr. Heck was diagnosed in October 2020.
“It had already metastasized so far that surgery would not do much good,” Darrell said. “They originally told him he had nine months, and he went far beyond that.”
Carla Schlueter of Bloomsdale is among a small group of close friends who supported Mr. Heck through his illness.
“He said he was not going to think of it as dying of cancer, but rather living with cancer,” she said. “We took trips, especially to Colorado. He loved John Denver and we had to sing ‘Rocky Mountain High’ when we crossed the border. We went to Florida in January; that was our last trip together.
Darrell said his brother will be remembered for his compassion and understanding and the ability to be a good listener.
“People knew they could tell him what was on their mind and he wouldn’t judge them,” he said. “His concern was for the people of his church, people at the hospital and the people he counseled. He was passionate about that.”
“He had such a caring spirit, and was one of the most humble human beings I’ve ever met,” Schlueter said. “Dennis loved people. It was just that simple.”
“Life Story,” posted Saturdays on Leader Publications’ website, focuses on one individual’s impact on his or her community.