Dr. Dennis Clifford

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Clifford, Dr. Dennis 65, a pulmonary and critical care specialist who treated and saved patients over a 40 year career and actively campaigned against the dangers of smoking, died himself on May 20, 2017, from the complications of a non-smoker's form of lung cancer. Raised in Edina and educated at the University of Minnesota Medical School, Dr. Clifford eventually moved to Colorado and worked at Lutheran Medical Center near Denver, once serving as president of the hospital's medical staff. He was Lutheran's Collaborative Practice Award winner, and in 2014 was installed on the coveted Honorary Medical Staff. While professionally a physician, Denny also was a writer, a teacher, a philosopher. Once diagnosed with his disease, he wrote dozens of inspirational essays about life and about death, about the joy of family and the agony of disease, on the website CaringBridge.org. Denny is survived by his wife Pam, his sons Steven Burbank and Kevin Burbank (wife Shari), his sisters Sheila Lind (Peter) and Cathy Brennan (Jerry), and his brothers James (Mary), John, Mark, and Brian. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations dedicated to the "memory of Dennis Clifford, MD," either to Mount Evans Hospice, 3081 Bergen Peak Drive, Evergreen CO 80439, or to UC Hospital Foundation "Cancer Center Patient Financial Assistance Fund," Attn: Erin Henninger, 2400 South Peoria St., #8, Aurora CO 80014.

Published on May 28, 2017