Dennis Hynes is a retired military veteran and man of faith. He’s also a lifelong learner and avid historian who combines these interests into giving his time to others.
That lifelong dedication to making a difference began when Hynes was a history major at the University of Portland. Following a two-year mandatory stint in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, Hynes decided to enlist in the Air Force as opposed to staying in school and risk being drafted to the Vietnam War.
“It was a time when people were making decisions of ‘I’m going to go to Canada, I’m going to wait and hope my number doesn’t get called,’” Hynes remembered. “I thought my place was to go try to be part of the solution to the problem.”
He went into the military in 1966 and emerged 27 years later, having attained the rank of colonel.
Although he didn’t graduate from college, education remained part of Hynes’ life. In Brussels, Belgium, he served as the US. representative on the International School Board.
“That was very interesting, because everybody’s view of education was strikingly the same at the core, but in implementation was very different,” Hynes said. “At one point, we were in a discussion about when schools should start so that the buses knew when to go out. So, schools all had to start about the same time. The Dutch, they didn’t like school to start at 8 [a.m.]; they thought we should not start until about 9:30 or 10.”
In the late 1980s, Hynes and his wife, Kathy, landed in the Omaha area on assignment at Strategic Air Command. Hynes spent five years working in the area, and the couple retired and remained in Bellevue. Hynes, however, couldn’t sit still. He was asked to come back to the military a couple of times and did. He also worked as a contractor. Around 2013, another 20 years after officially “retiring” from the Air Force, Hynes finally fully retired.
The affable colonel enjoys being active, so, encouraged by his wife, he looked at a number of places to volunteer. He chose The Durham Museum because it looked like “a pretty neat place.”
That neat place has become a source of passion and inspiration for him.
“You can tell that he really cares about this place. That comes through in his enthusiasm when he is…being a docent for a field trip,” said Dawn Myron, director of communications at The Durham. “You can just see that he really relishes, you know, connecting with the kids and seeing their eyes light up when when they really get what he’s sharing about history. You can tell that he really cares about this place in this community, just in the way that he engages with the guests.”
Hynes takes time to learn everything he can about an exhibition, even when it isn’t his personal favorite.
“Some of the most interesting ones are those where I think ‘You have got to be kidding me,’” Hynes said. “There was an exhibition about Katharine Hepburn [2015’s“Katharine Hepburn: Dressed for Stage and Screen”]. I loved that one. I thought, ‘What do I know about women’s clothes?’ But it turned out to be a really well-put-together exhibition because it had posters for all the movies she’d been in, and people would come in and ask all sorts of questions about her.”
He particularly remembers“Dressing the Abbey,” which displayed at The Durham from September 2022 through early January 2023.
“I remember there was this group of about 14 people from Australia,” Hynes recounted. “They were on a tour of the US, and they came to Omaha because they were big Downton Abbey fans. There were a lot of people that were seamstresses and people who worked in theater and involved in costuming, so you just get to meet all kinds of people.”
Connecting with people is one of Hynes’ favorite parts of the gig.
Fellow volunteer and friend Tom Johnson said Hynes may humbly mention that he’s “going down there again,” but it brings him great joy.
“One of my favorite memories is from that Muppets exhibition they had a while back,” Johnson said, referring to “The Jim Henson Exhibition: Imagination Unlimited!,” which ran from October 2020 through January 2021. “They had an area where you could try your hand at recreating a video. Well, Den got right down there at the kids’ level with the puppets and was having a great time with the kids that came through.”
Along with puppeteering, Hynes himself often gets into character for the role, dressing in costumes for various exhibitions. Myron said he is happy to enrich people’s experiences by becoming a Shakespearean actor, a 1920s mobster, and more. Hynes understands that people learn in different ways and delights in providing visual and audio aids so people have the fullest experience possible.
“He just takes the time to really be warmly welcoming, and kind of makes sure that he’s asking questions that are engaging our guests, and that helps add to the visitor experience,” Myron said. “You can just tell that connecting to people is so important to him.”
Hynes particularly enjoys connecting to his fellow service members. He helps organize tours for the crew of the USS Omaha, assisting military folks like those he fondly worked with to connect with the story of Omaha and their ship’s namesake.
Beyond working front and center with the visitors to the museum, Hynes also serves the museum by working on the volunteer advisory committee, which provides insight and suggests improvements for volunteers. He has also been a volunteer at Fontenelle Forest, currently volunteers at Eastern Nebraska Veterans’ Home, and regularly gives time to his church, St. Matthew Catholic in Bellevue. Those he serves have taken notice over the years; a year ago, Hynes was honored as the 2023 Veteran Volunteer awardee of Serve Nebraska’s annual Step Forward Awards.
Hynes may have started in the military prompted by a desire to serve others, but living a life of volunteerism has served his soul.
“Getting in there, and having class with the kids, and teaching them, you know, you get to do all kinds of stuff,” Hynes said. “But you [also] get to tell them about history. I mean, what more could one ask for in life?”
