Dennis Laverna Soggie nee Sogge was born on September 3, 1936 in Loreburn, Saskatchewan, Canada and died March 29, 2024 in Davidson, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Dennis was the youngest son of Thorolf Sogge (Trondheim, Norway) and Ella Alvina Sogge nee Lillemo (Red Lake county, Minnesota, USA), and was the lifelong friend and spouse of over sixty years to Phyllis Joan Soggie (nee Bothner).

Dennis was a devoted husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather and is survived by his wife of sixty years, writer and author Phyllis Joan Soggie, and his four children (youngest to oldest) Andrea Maren Myhr (nee Soggie), Lori Dawn Sogge, Drs. Neil Alan Soggie and Kimberly Lynn Sogge as well as many thriving and adventurous grandchildren and great grandchildren residing across Canada, in the USA, and in Europe.

Dennis was predeceased by his older brothers Leonard Owen Sogge, Stanley Vernon Sogge, and sisters Eunice Marilyn Sogge (Tysdal), and Carol Annette Sogge (Tangjerd).

Dennis was a proud third generation prairie dryland farmer, part of the hardy lineage of Norwegian Lutheran settlers who arrived on the Canadian prairies in the early 1900s before Saskatchewan was a province. He was a lifelong community member of Elbow, Saskatchewan, Canada. He served his community as a councillor for the R.M. of Loreburn, member of the Central Butte Hospital Board and a hard working member of the Board of Regents for the Lutheran Collegiate Bible Institute in Outlook, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Dennis was an active lifelong member of the Norwegian Lutheran faith community in Western Canada and was confirmed at age 15 in the traditionally Norwegian-Canadian Skudesnes Lutheran Church of Loreburn, Saskatchewan, Canada of which his family members Kristine and Odine Jacobsen were founding members. He attended the one room Fenelon School in Loreburn, Saskatchewan and the Sogge family boarded the school teacher at their homestead near the school. As did most boys of his day, he departed school to farm independently and buy his own cattle after he completed 8th grade. He bought his first quarter of land when he was seventeen years old and farmed some of the same land for over fifty years.

He took one semester of Bible Studies at what was then the Saskatchewan Lutheran Bible Institute when he was sixteen years old; as an adult, when his children began university, he dove into completion of his secondary studies. With trademark perseverance and dedication as an adult he overcame severe dyslexia to earn a secondary diploma in his fifties; he read fluently and enjoyed histories, adventure novels, biographies and flying stories for the rest of his life.

Dennis had a Nordic love of community singing and choral music. On many family car trips the family sang together for hours to pass the time; his children have memories of grace before meals in glorious four part harmony when visiting relatives for holidays. He sang tenor with the Chimo Chordsmen of Saskatoon in the 80s and 90s, and following the Chordsmen he was part of a quartet named the Forefathers founded with old friends Glenn Vollmer, Bob Hundeby, Les Langager and Jake Dyck and with changing membership over many years . In his retirement years he spent winters in Texas singing with the Park Place Men’s Gospel Choir.

Later in his life Dennis discovered the joy of dance and movement, delighting in being one of the first in his retirement community to bike with electric bikes and belonging to the Park Place Bike Club. While spending snowbird time in Texas Dennis and his wife Joan took up square dancing, line dancing and in particular enjoyed Texas Two Step. In his seventies he and his wife began to travel the world with new friends exploring Europe through Germany, Spain, France, fulfilling a dream of riding the Orient Express through Russia, Mongolia and China, and experiencing other cultures in Peru, Ecuador, and Columbia. Many friends remember him in recent years as an avid pickleball competitor at the Elbow Pickleball Club.

Dennis’ vivid imagination and preternatural abilities to fix and create with his hands led him to a life of many fulfilled dreams of flying. As a young man he told of running his hand through the wind as he drove and dreaming of flying a plane. He fulfilled his flying dreams by earning both private and commercial pilot’s licenses as well as his twin engine rating at the Regina Flying Club, as well as his helicopter rating at the Calgary Flying Club. He later started a business Denny’s Spraying service offering crop spraying services to the central Saskatchewan agricultural community for many years. His crowning glory of flying was building and flying his own Denny’s Club airplane based on modified Super Cub engineering plans in his sixties and seventies. His plane with call sign CF-DLS continues to fly out of Regina today.

Dennis’ interment will be at Elbow Cemetery in Elbow, Saskatchewan, Canada following the Celebration of Life service.

Following interment at Elbow Cemetery all friends, family and community members are welcomed for refreshments and fellowship with Dennis’ family at the Harbour Golf Club.

In lieu of flowers please make donations in memoriam of Dennis L. Soggie by sending an e-transfer to skudesneslutheranchurch@gmail.com or by mailing cheques to the attention of Verna Urlacher Treasurer, Skudesnes Lutheran Church, P.O. Box 100 Loreburn, Saskatchewan SOH 2S0 Phone 306-644-4702.