Roll Call Tribute

Dennis Jarret Guill
1947 - December 3, 2021

Dennis Jarret Guill '69 went to his final rest on December 3, 2021, surrounded by his beloved wife of 50 years and two sons.  He waged a short but fierce battle with ALS, which took his life after only 18 months.

Dennis was born of Texan parents, and although he spent some of his childhood in England and Scotland then much of his adolescence in Connecticut, he remained a Texan at heart.  Son of an Aggie, Dennis graduated from Texas A&M in 1969, and went on to produce an Aggie son of his own – all in the Corps of Cadets.  After earning a degree in Electrical Engineering from A&M, Dennis forged his path in the Army Signal Corps with Signal Office Basic Course in Fort Gordon, GA, where he met Patty Romer, his Georgia Peach who became his bride in 1971.  After SOBC, he completed Airborne Ranger School, then went on to Fort Monmouth and ultimately to Vietnam for a year beginning in April 1972.  After the Army, in 1976 he started a long career with Rockwell Collins in microwave radio – a new and burgeoning field at the time.  He was awarded a patent for Microwave Digital Circuit Design.   Rockwell (after several mergers and acquisitions) finally become Alcatel-Lucent, from which Dennis retired in 2009 as head of R&D for the Microwave Transmission division.  Always pretty reserved, if you ever wanted to get Dennis talking, just ask him about radio communications over some Johnnie Walker.

Dennis always was interested in other cultures, and during his career he eagerly studied them through travel to China, Korea, Argentina, Mexico, and Egypt – where he got to see the great pyramids, a dream of his.  After retirement, he and Patty became expert RV’ers.  Their travels took them to all 48 contiguous states as well as Hawaii (not in the RV) and Canada, and most lately they had plans for Alaska.  Gulf Waters in Port Aransas, became their beloved home base, where Dennis was very active in developing the community.

Dennis loved the Gulf of Mexico.  He loved sailing and participated in several annual Harvest Moon Regatta races in the Gulf on the Aurora, a 41 ft. Lord Nelson Cutter.  He was always looking at boats, reading about boats, and finally became a boat owner, upon which he hung more electronic gadgets than Air Force One, as his son likes to say.  When he wasn’t travelling, he was out tinkering with that boat.

He and Patty raised two beautiful sons (one Aggie cadet, one VMI cadet) of whom Dennis was always fiercely proud.  He also loved their dachshund family members and took them literally everywhere.  He did some unanticipated repairs in various hotel rooms as a result…  The Guill Family is famous for its dry sense of humor and wry wit, a Dennis trademark.

Dennis is survived by his beloved wife of 50 years, Patterson (Romer), his two sons, Dennis Jarret Guill, Jr '96 (Christy) and Lee Romer Guill (Kristyn), and his grandson, Aiden Matthew Guill.  He was the first-born of A.W. and Ursula (Magliolo) Guill, and cherished big brother to his four siblings:  Joseph Talley Guill (Joyce, son PJ), Jeffery Russel Guill, Maryann Guill Couch (Jim, children John, Katherine, Laura) and Ninabeth Guill Sowell (Jud, son Benjamin). 

There will be a celebration of Dennis’ life at 2PM on December 18^th at Highland Springs Senior Living Community, 8000 Frankford Rd, Dallas, TX  75252.  As a final gift, Dennis donated his body to UT Southwestern Medical Center to help advance medical education and research, especially for ALS.  In lieu of flowers, the family gratefully welcomes donations to the ALS Foundation.