Charles Triplett Trip Dennis

Dennis, Charles Triplett

May 25, 1969 - June 24, 2021

"Trip" Dennis, 52, passed away on Thursday morning being held by his wife Gillian and his sisters Laura and Betty. He was born in Winston-Salem, NC on May 25, 1969. He passed after a courageous battle with cancer.

Trip was a professional naturalist. When he was young, Trip developed a passion for birds from his mother and inherited a love for the sea from his father. He graduated from Virginia Episcopal School and Hampton-Sydney College, where he earned a degree in biology. During his school years, he worked on Project Puffin in Maine, helping to restore these idiosyncratic sea birds. He completed National Outdoor Leadership programs in the Wind River Mountains and in Patagonia.

Trip received a Master's degree in biology from the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, where he studied threats to island-nesting birds. He was hired as a naturalist for Abercrombie and Kent Expeditions, beginning a long career on ships devoted to ecotourism, first the Explorer and then Lindblad's National Geographic Endeavor. Trip's expertise was in seabirds and marine mammals, and he also had great familiarity with temperate, tropical, and arctic land birds. He crossed the Atlantic six times. In a stopover in the Falkland Islands, he met his future wife, Gillian Walker. The two worked together from Antarctica to the Arctic circle, the Amazon River Basin, and most of the remote Islands of the Atlantic. They left the sea and settled in Charlottesville, Virginia, where Trip, having earned his appraisers license, started his own business, Virginia Real Estate. Trip and Gillian welcomed their sons, Jack in 2007 and Henry in 2009. They were by Trip's side through many adventures, including the Cub Scouts, camping in the Blue Ridge and Outer Banks, and family beach and fishing trips. Trip's new expedition was being a dad, and all who knew him understood it was his favorite.

He is survived by his wife, Gillian Ann Dennis; sons, Jack Triplett Dennis and Henry Langley Dennis of Charlottesville, Virginia; father, Henry Buckner Dennis, Jr. and mother, Nancy Gwaltney Dennis of Winston-Salem, North Carolina; and sisters, Elizabeth Dennis Baldwin of Central, South Carolina and Laura Dennis Hyland of Phoenix, Arizona and their families. He leaves behind loyal friends from his boyhood in Winston-Salem and Harker's Island, North Carolina, and those he met during his studies and travels around the world.

The service to celebrate Trip's life will be outdoors at Brightside Farm, 1350 Dunlora Farm Road, Charlottesville, Virginia at 11 AM on Thursday, July 1.

In lieu of flowers, please make a tribute gift to Audubon Project Puffin, which can be done online or by mailing to Project Puffin, 12 Audubon Rd, Bremen, ME, 04551.