Dennis Quinn

1934 - 2022

Dennis Quinn
October 7, 1934 - July 26, 2022
Dennis Earl Quinn, born at East Oakland Hospital on October 7, 1934 in Oakland, California to Helena Ruth and Earl Victor Quinn, died at home in bed in San Francisco on July 26, 2022. Dennis, a graduate of St. Elizabeth's High School in Oakland, California (1952), and U.S. Army Military Intelligence School (1958), served as a military intelligence analyst and was honorably discharged in 1959. With the support of the GI Bill, Dennis completed a Bachelor of Arts at the University of San Francisco (1967), a Master of Arts at San Francisco State University (1974), and studied Irish Literature at University College Dublin, Ireland (1976). At sixteen, Dennis hitchhiked across the United States and he eventually traveled the world, spending 40 days incarcerated in Japan for possession of marijuana, was employed as a movie extra for The Great Escape in Germany, and sailed on the Alaska Bear as a Merchant Marine and member of the Sailors Union of the Pacific. In the mid-1960s Dennis drove a cab in San Francisco and his last decades of paid labor were spent as a member of the International Brotherhood of Painters and Allied Trades Sign Display Union Local 510, building convention displays. But his best energies were dedicated to the arts-Dennis painted and sewed, built furniture, published poetry and fiction, crafted jewelry, and covered his home with mosaics. Dennis was also an anti-colonialist and supporter of the liberation struggles of Palestinians and queer people, among others. He will be terribly missed. Dennis is survived by his daughter, Therese Quinn (Pat Guizzetti), niece, Deirdre Quinn, grandchildren, Mearah Quinn-Brauner (Craig Woods) and Aza Quinn-Brauner (Emma Robbins), and great-grandchildren, Nula Woodsviolet, Piñon Robbins, and Wya Woodsviolet, and long-time friends, Marilyn Sronce and Janet Weinberg.