Dennis Lee Poggensee

Dennis L. Poggensee was born to Irene and Alfred on August 11th, 1939. Dennis grew up on a farm north of Chappell Nebraska. He had four brothers, Virgil, Marlin, Benny, and Gary. And two sisters Verna (Kenneth Stubblefield), and Lavonne (Allen Lessman). He was the last to join his family in their Heavenly home. Dennis met his Forever Love, Lois Radke, in high school. After graduation they were married on June 1st, 1957. They would have celebrated 66 years. Dennis and Lois had five children. Jolene Mahan (Bob), Cathy Johnson (Charles), Jerry (Debbie), Ken, and Connie Ludlam (Brian). He was blessed with 14 grandchildren, and 30 great-grandchildren. All of them were loved and told they were special. The great grandkids loved to visit Grandpa because he lived on a farm with "BIG TRACTORS". Dennis started his career as a caterpillar mechanic in 1959 at Nebraska Machinery Company, where he soon became a service mechanic. In 1965 Dennis started working for McCoy Caterpillar in Denver driving a service truck over "many miles". Dennis was transferred to Greeley as a service manager for 18 months. In 1971 when McCoy went on strike Dennis left and started working for Bussard Construction Company. In 1973 Dennis decided to go into business for himself. He built his first service truck from the chassis up including a homemade crane. Many of his friends encouraged him to patent the crane. In 1978 Dennis moved to an acreage in Weld County where he had his own shop. Over the years he designed and built his second service truck with everything a mechanic would need including a library of service manuals. Throughout the 45 years in Weld County Dennis found a passion collecting and restoring antique caterpillars. Dennis was known for his vast knowledge of caterpillars. He would often take time to show anybody his collection and what he was working on, proudly answering any of their questions. Dennis will be greatly missed by his family and friends.

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