Tech entrepreneur, Dennis W. Jolly, 75, of Austin, Texas, passed away at home surrounded by his family on Wednesday, June 19, 2025. Born on March 22, 1950, in Granite City, Illinois, Dennis was the oldest son of Claude Jolly and Patricia (née Clements) Jolly.
He was preceded in death by his parents and is survived by his wife of 50 years, Deborah (Votoupal) Jolly; his daughter, Katherine Thigpen, and son-in-law, Josh Thigpen; his son, Jonathan Jolly; and his grandson, Austin Thigpen. He is also survived by his six younger brothers—Gregory (Janice), Jeff (Linda), Kenneth (Peggy), David, Tom, and Jason (Cindy), as well as a large extended family of nieces, nephews and cousins who looked to him a sounding board, and the occasional instigator.
Dennis graduated from Granite City High School before attending Southern Illinois University, where he earned undergraduate and master’s degrees in physiology and biochemistry. At this time, he started his academic research at the university dental school and published in the area of vitamin K. All his life, he had intended to become a heart surgeon and received a full academic scholarship to St. Louis University Medical School MD-Ph.D. program, where he studied and conducted research in the renowned Doisy Lab. There, he was a member of the research team that did the early work on what would later become foundational in breast cancer treatment therapies.
Ever one to defy expectation and now enamored with the emerging technologies that he experienced in the Doisy Lab, Dennis made a bold and surprising decision to take a yearlong leave of absence from his studies to open the first computer store in downstate Illinois. It was at this time that he assembled (soldered) the first personal/business computers of the time, programmed and developed software for them, and introduced them to a public that was new to understanding the power that they held. After a year of successfully starting this small tech business, and just six months shy of completing his dissertation-based Ph.D., he sold the business and accepted a personal invitation (1980) from Steve Jobs to join a fledgling company called Apple. In the early 1980s, he was a key player in building Apple’s sales and marketing efforts throughout the Midwest helping shape the company’s presence before “Apple” was a household name. That leap launched a decades-long career in global technology and management.
Dennis made his way to Austin, Texas in 1987 when a small upstart computer company called PCs Limited (later Dell) summoned him. Here he developed their sales force from the ground up and phenomenally grew earnings for the company. When Dennis first arrived during the early years, the company had just completed a fiscal year with $69 million in total revenue. When he left, the company was more than 40 times as large, with annual revenue in the range of $2.9 billion much to his credit. He was a vice-president in various aspects of the company’s growing USA sales, marketing, and support business. In addition, he held various senior executive endeavors at other start-up tech companies, where he specialized in manufacturing software, strategic partnerships, and business development. He especially enjoyed start-ups, struggling companies, building from the ground up…unknowns. He advised numerous startups, worked with business schools and universities to improve institutional performance. He found time to complete executive coursework at both the Wharton School of Business and the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
While an undergraduate at SIU, Dennis was instrumental in establishing the Illinois Eta Chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon, becoming one of its founding fathers and forming lifelong friendships along the way. He married Deborah, his college sweetheart, a SigEp Golden Heart. Though raised Protestant, Dennis converted to Catholicism when he married, embracing the faith with conviction. He enthusiastically joined the Knights of Columbus, bowled and drank beer with parish priests, and found in the Church both tradition and community. His commitment grew from love and deepened over time through belief.
Dennis also had a creative side. He served on the Board of Directors for Austin Meals on Wheels for over a decade and was instrumental in conceptualizing and establishing their new kitchen. He collaborated on several independent films through he and his two business partner’s start-up company, 3Ds Films, earning IMDb credits and approaching each project with curiosity and heart.
Dennis was deeply curious, opinionated in the best way, and endlessly energetic about new ideas. He was a born mentor and coach, someone who didn’t just offer guidance, but lived it. He was a man of contrast: a tech and business executive who valued intuition, a global traveler who dearly loved his home, a strategic thinker with an artist’s eye, and a fiercely independent spirit who quietly showed up when it mattered most.
Though he wore many professional titles in his lifetime, the ones he held the very dearest were at home. He was a loving husband, a devoted father, and a proud granddaddy. To his grandson Austin, he was the unofficial “Baby School Director,” a patient teacher of life’s larger lessons. He also served as the family’s ever-available tech support, a role he accepted with equal parts competence and dramatic flair. He loved to follow and dream of space travel stating that he was born 500 years too soon. With this his ashes will be committed to space as were Roddenberry, Spock, Bones and Scotty…space… where he always longed to go one day.
A memorial “event” will be held at Celis Brewery on July 16, 5:30 pm-10 pm. Be prepared to experience his favorite things (Star Trek, space travel, KFC, Texas BBQ). His ashes have been prepared for their final journey. Space…his final frontier. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to your local Meals on Wheels or Comforts of Home Hospice in Austin—or simply raise a toast (preferably good bourbon) to Dennis at sunset, wherever you might be. A toast to a life well lived.
A special thank you to Comforts of Home Hospice, whose remarkable care and compassion carried the family through his final months. And the Dell Seton Hospital, The University of Texas Medical Center, to the extraordinary doctors, nurses and staff who cared for this special patient.
Dennis lived life on his own terms—and sometimes everyone else’s. He will be deeply missed and joyfully remembered for his stories; his presence, his advice (solicited or not), and the lasting imprint he left on every room he entered.
