Built on Trust, Fueled by Purpose
Denny and Annie have made a lot of bold moves in their lives. They met and married in 70 days. They moved to Italy with the Navy. They relocated to Washington State right after Mount St. Helens erupted while ash was still falling across North Dakota. They launched a financial services practice from scratch the same month the economy was about to be upended, and they came out on top.
So when it came time to consider Sierra Winds, less than 60 days from first visit to move-in felt about right.
From Pittsburgh to the Pacific with a Stop in Italy
Denny grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and moved near Bradford as a kid before finishing high school and doing what a lot of young men from that part of the world did: he joined the Navy. He served for ten years.
Annie’s path started in Massena, New York, just south of Montreal, where the winters were severe enough that she still does not miss them. At 17, she enrolled in nursing school with two goals: to travel the world and to help people. She accomplished both.
After working in Rochester and then Virginia, she met Denny. Then came Italy, where they lived for nearly five years.
“We were young, we were adventurous, and we said yes to everything,” Annie says. It is a pattern that has never really stopped.
Careers Built on Reinvention
Denny came home from the Navy and tried restaurant ownership near a Virginia shipyard. It was short-lived, as he puts it, but it taught him something. He moved into the automobile business, eventually opening and managing one of the first Saturn retail facilities in the country, a genuinely novel concept at the time. Then he sold boats for five years. But then came something entirely different.
In 2001, Denny and Annie launched a financial services practice together. They divided the work the way they divide most things: Annie earned the trust, built the relationships, and brought people in. Denny delved into the details and presented the financial picture. Then September 11 happened, and while their industry struggled, Annie and Denny were at the top. They ran the practice for twenty years, handed over the business to trusted mentees, and they headed to Arizona.
Annie’s career had its own shape. After Italy, she managed a large apartment complex in Virginia. She was brought in specifically because it needed to turn a profit, and she was good at sales. After moving to Washington in 1980, she was constantly in a sales and retail role; she then started a house-cleaning business with a friend and trained others to take it on, and built a Mary Kay business so successfully that her director eventually purchased it from her. Then came the financial practice, which she launched on her own before Denny joined and filled the next two decades.
“I’ve always loved sales,” she says. “And what I love most about it is the relationships. You have to earn trust before anything else works.”
The Accomplishments That Matter Most
When asked about accomplishments, Denny does not lead with business. He leads with survival.
He lost his mother, his father, and his siblings to cancer. He got the diagnosis himself, and he came through it. That fact sits at the center of how he talks about his life now.
The other accomplishment he names is the marriage ministry he and Annie built together, twenty years of teaching marriage classes at their church in Washington and Arizona. “We made all the mistakes,” he says with a laugh. “So we may as well teach someone what we’ve learned.” They have spent decades helping couples navigate the hard things, approaching that work from a place of humility rather than expertise. They know what it feels like to be in the middle of something difficult and not know the way through.
Their son and his wife have two children and still live in Washington state. Family, faith, and the friendships that have lasted decades, including the friends they met in Italy who eventually followed them all the way to Sierra Winds, are the cornerstone of their story.
Ninety Days
Denny and Annie had been snowbirding in Arizona since 2002 and bought a condo in Sun City in 2014. For years, they talked about what the next chapter might look like. Then came a clear sense of direction, what they describe as following God’s lead, and the decision was made. From first visit to moving in: 90 days. “We decided, packed, moved, and settled,” Annie says. “Just like that.”
What made Sierra Winds the answer after more than a year of looking at other options? Follow-up, for one thing. Other communities made promises and went quiet. Sierra Winds was different. Their son, an attorney who does not impress easily, came along on a visit and listened carefully to the team. He was impressed. So were they.
Two staff members, Kimberly and Matthew, made such an impression that Denny and Annie have essentially adopted them. “We keep Kimberly busy,” Annie says, with the kind of grin that suggests this is an understatement.
A Renewed Purpose
Denny wasted no time. He joined the board of the Sierra Winds Charitable Foundation and joined a Billiards Club. Golf will be the next activity to come back once physical therapy wraps up. The cancer treatment slowed him down, but it did not stop him.
Annie walks five to six miles a day, rain or shine, which at Sierra Winds means she walks the hallways when the Phoenix weather makes the outdoors unreasonable. The walled twenty-acre campus feels quiet, safe, and tranquil. She walks with friends — some who live here, some who come to meet her. She also visits the assisted living and skilled nursing neighborhoods regularly, sitting with residents, listening, praying with those who want it, drawing on her nursing background to offer presence in a way that goes beyond activity planning.
“My heart and passion are to fill Sierra Winds up,” she says. “Because it’s so wonderful. When we help bring people here, we’re helping our family.”
She and Denny have already referred four new residents within six months — enough to lock in their monthly rate for life. Annie leads what she calls “Annie tours,” walking prospective residents through the community, sharing meals, letting Sierra Winds speak for itself.
The food, incidentally, is something they take seriously. Having owned a restaurant, they know the difference. “The food is incredible,” Annie says. “We know what goes into getting that right.”
A Bible study is in the works for Annie, too. New friendships are already in place, and the staff is their extended family, making showing up each day feel worthwhile.
“This is my next chapter,” Annie says. “A renewed purpose outside of church. A new group of people to encourage.”
Their Advice: Work Through the Objections
Denny and Annie have heard every hesitation, usually because they have helped talk people through them.
Can I afford it? Work through the obstacles with the Sierra Winds team, they say. “Work through your obstacles in your mind,” Annie says. “Most people find that what they thought was a barrier isn’t actually one.”
Too soon? A question a Sierra Winds team member, Kimberly, once posed to them cuts right through it: “Is it easier to move now, or easier in two years?” They went home and actually thought about it. Their health was good. There was no real reason to wait.
Their friends at Sierra Winds now include parents of people they know and children of former residents who have moved in themselves. Community here, they have found, runs generational.
“We hear it constantly,” Denny says. “‘We wish we had done it sooner’.”
They believed it before they moved. They are certain of it now.