Lovell High School students and staff members were stunned this week by the news that longtime agriculture teacher and FFA advisor Dennis Love had died suddenly early Tuesday morning.


Love, 34, died at North Big Horn Hospital Tuesday morning after being rushed to the hospital by ambulance.
Services for the popular teacher are schedule for Friday at 2 p.m. at the Lovell High School Winterholler Gym. A viewing is scheduled for tonight (Thursday) from 6 to 8 p.m.


Still shocked and saddened by Love’s death, senior LHS ag students and FFA chapter leaders Cody Gifford, Wes Mangus and Kris Hutchinson spoke Tuesday of their love and respect for their teacher.


“He was more than a teacher. We went everywhere and did everything with him,” Gifford said. “He was a friend to everybody, a mentor.”


“Whenever we needed him, he was there to help us,” Mangus said, “at fair, state convention and judging competitions. He was always there to get us ready to do well.”


Hutchinson agreed, noting, “He always helped you with projects you were working on.”


Gifford recalled Love’s good nature, saying that he rarely got mad and always seemed to be in good spirits, often “joking around.”


“He never complained,” Mangus added. “He was always there to have a good time. He always made it fun. He always did little things to make a trip better, like tours and other things to make a trip more enjoyable.”


For instance, Mangus said, FFA members visited the King Ropes museum in Sheridan and toured the Sheridan College greenhouse and meat department en route to the state FFA convention one spring.


All three students said Love’s loss leaves a huge hole in the ag program at LHS.


“He was the ag department at Lovell High School,” Gifford said. “If there was something we could do or a project we could make or an event we could go to”…“he would do what he could to take us,” Mangus said, finishing the sentence.


For instance, they said, Love took FFA members to a Northern International Livestock Exposition judging event in Billings, and even though they weren’t eligible to compete, they were able to judge without scores for experience.


“He always put a lot of extra time in for us,” Mangus said.
“He was always the first one to arrive and the last one to leave (a function),” Hutchinson added.


“In the summer he worked over his contract,” Gifford noted. “He was always donating time to our FFA projects. We spent so much time with him.”


“He was almost family,” Mangus said, and Gifford added, “I babysat his kids.”


Gifford said Love once drove 200 miles out of his way to pick him up for an event when he was attending the Hugh O’Brien youth leadership conference and needed to get to an ag event.


Even during the last week of his life, Love’s dedication to his students was evident. Hospitalized with bleeding ulcers for five days, he returned to school last Thursday, Sept. 25, and on Friday night helped with an FFA fund-raising barbecue prior to the Homecoming football game, working more than four hours after school. He was back in school Monday, as well.

According to Lovell Supt. of Schools Dan Coe, Love first attended Laramie County Community College, then graduated from the University of Wyoming in 1999 with a Bachelor of Science degree in ag education. After teaching high school agriculture for a year in Hyannis, Neb., he came to Lovell High School in the fall of 2000 to teach agriculture and welding and serve as the FFA advisor.


“He was a great individual and a great teacher,” Coe said. “He was dedicated to his students and worked well with his colleagues. He was always willing to help anybody in any way he could.


“We’re definitely going to miss him, both as a person and as a professional educator.”


Coe said Love took a “hands-on” approach to teaching, keeping students actively engaged in the learning process. He was also very active as an FFA advisor, Coe said, and “knew the ins and outs of FFA, able to accurately advise students in the program.”


Love was able to help students with FFA projects both in agriculture and ag mechanics.


“Welding was a huge part of Dennis’ program,” Coe said. “He was always building projects with the kids through his FFA program, things like trailers, farm implements and hay feeders.”


Love took students to the county and state fairs each year and was planning to accompany students to the national FFA convention in Indianapolis on Oct. 22-25.
Active on the state level, he was the past president of the Wyoming Vo Ag Teachers Association and was actively involved in professional development at the state level, as well as at the local level, Coe said.


Love leaves his wife, JeriLyn, and three children: daughter Stormi, 5, and twin boys Morgan and James, 3.
“He was a joy to have around,” Coe said. “We’re going to thoroughly miss him.”