Portage County obituaries for May 29-30

Dennis Deal, 75, formerly of Kent, passed away in New York City on May 18, 2024. He was born on November 8, 1948, in Kansas City to Katherine and Paul Deal. After living in several cities, the family moved to Kent in the early 1960’s. He graduated from Roosevelt High School, where he was an outstanding student; senior class president, participated in many theatre productions and the marching band, and won the American Legion Outstanding Student award. In 2001, he was inducted into the Kent School Hall of Fame. Dennis wrote and recorded an ode to the city entitled “Kent Is…” for a civic celebration.

He attended Muskingum University and after graduating from Kent State University with an MFA in Music and Theater in 1972, he moved to New York City where he lived the rest of his life. He was a multi-talented artist—singer, dancer, arranger, writer, and director in many media—theatre, concerts, television and movies. For many years he was the bass singer in the a cappella group The Accidentals. He also wrote and directed the musical Nite Club Confidential which appeared Off Broadway, on London’s West End, and in L.A. and Boston. Dennis donated many hours of his time by mentoring other singers, writing a musical for izzit.org, the Free to Choose Network, and too many others to mention.