DeLeo

Family and friends are attempting to come to grips with the tragic and sudden passing of a popular Altoona dentist.

Dennis “Denny” DeLeo, 75, died Thursday at his Homers Gap home while cutting down a tree.

“We’re just all heartbroken,” said Theresa Baronner, who has worked as a dental assistant for DeLeo and his daughter, Kit Dangler, at their Altoona Family Dentistry practice for the past 41 years. “He was a terrific boss. He’d give you the shirt off his back.”

DeLeo had a 40-plus year dental career with thousands of patients and was recognized several times in the Mirror’s annual Hometown Favorites contest.

His daughter became a dentist in 2005 and practiced in Bellefonte. But after DeLeo experienced heart complications and had to take medical leave in 2010, Dangler came home and took over the practice, allowing DeLeo to retire while still working a couple of days a week.

“I always wanted to be like my father,” Dangler said. “My father knew how to connect with others through his stories. I got into dentistry because of him. He taught me how to listen and be kind to others. He is the epitome of kindness.”

“He got to watch his daughter take care of his friends, patients and staff,” son Victor DeLeo said. “No father could be more proud.”

DeLeo had a commanding voice — “when he spoke, you knew it,” Victor said — but a soft heart.

He loved cooking and annually hosted his staff at his home for a Christmas feast.

“He cooked Italian food in the tradition of his mother,” Victor said. “He spent so much time in the grocery store that we joked it was his second home.”

“We always told him he should open up a restaurant,” Baronner said.

DeLeo played poker every Thursday night with his buddies and closed his office on Fridays.

“He lived a life he’d always wanted,” Victor said. “He served everyone in his life before himself. The only time he did something for himself was poker on Thursday nights. But then again, any winnings, he’d give to his family.”

DeLeo’s death marked the third fatal tree-trimming incident in the area in the last couple of weeks, Coroner Patty Ross said.

There were two other older men who died at their residences in the same manner as DeLeo, Ross said, stressing the importance of safety and professional tree-trimming services. One of the incidents was in Cresson and another was in Huntingdon County, she said.

Logan Township first responders were dispatched to DeLeo’s home at 10:09 a.m. Thursday.

AMED arrived at 10:17 a.m., and an engine from the United Volunteer Fire Company arrived at 10:25 a.m. to lift the tree, said Jeff Blake, Logan Township emergency management agency coordinator and United Fire Department spokesman.

Greenwood and Newburg volunteer firefighters arrived at 10:29 a.m. There were 13 firefighters among all the agencies that arrived at DeLeo’s residence. They used saws and inflatable airbags to lift the tree.

Blake was friendly with DeLeo.

“This is a very tragic incident. I knew him well over the years,” Blake said. “It is tragic across the community, and that includes the volunteers. They carry calls like this with them.”

Ross said firefighters could not have saved DeLeo, who was cutting down a 40-foot ash tree.

“There’s nothing they would have been able to do,” Ross said. “He had extensive injuries. They did everything they possibly could have done.”

Even in death, his family took comfort in knowing DeLeo died on his own terms.

“When he was not cooking, he spent most of his free time tending to his country home of 45 years,” Victor said. “If cooking was his secondary trade, the landscaping and gardening would have been his art. He died doing just that. He lived such a good life. Even this week, he said to a friend, ‘I am looking forward to doing the same, old things every day.’

“To us, that would mean cooking, cutting some grass and taking care of his loved ones.”

DeLeo and his wife, Mary, celebrated their 50th anniversary last August. In addition to Victor and Kit, he is also survived by a son, Joseph, and six grandchildren.

Friends will be received from 3 to 8 p.m. today at St. Therese of the Child Jesus Catholic Church in Altoona. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 11 a.m. Monday at the church.

(Mirror Staff Writer Russ O’Reilly contributed to this story.)