Dennis Welch
George Gallup Jr. had this advice for him: "Whatever you do, Dennis, be a writer." During his tenure at The Gallup Organization, the CMO called him "one of the top 5 writers in the company" He is a poet, a businessman, a published writer, an inventor of marketing systems and a seemingly endless source of ideas and innovations.
Dennis Welch, a native Texan, was born and raised in North Houston. Apparently he has always been a "word man". When he had just turned 5, his mother told his father one day that she has just been to the mall to see S-A-N-T-A C-L-A-U-S. "You mean Santa Claus?" Dennis screamed in excitement. The word got out to the good folks at Janowski Elementary School, whereupon Mrs. McRee, the Principal, took him to the University of Houston to be tested. After the results came back, she offered to start him in the third grade rather than the first. His mother balked at that idea, opting to start him in the first grade with this caveat: that he be allowed to read anything in the school library rather than being confined to just the kiddie books. He read 30 Seconds Over Tokyo, all of the collection of Mark Twain, and The Mickey Mantle Story (among others), all before he got out of the third grade.
"I don't think I was any kind of savant or anything" he says. But his unique ability did lead to at least one funny moment one morning at Janowski School.
He is, after all, a story teller, and he loves telling this one: "We "small fries" congregated before school on a different side of the building than my brother Keith's age group. One day, he came and got me and dragged me around to his side of the building, and once he got me there, a crowd of big boys gathered around me. "Go ahead", Keith said triumphantly, "spell it. Antidisestablishmentarianism. Go ahead. Do it!" I must have been helping him win a bet or something. I never knew one way or the other. I did feel a tad threatened, though. So, I did it:
A-N-T-I-D-I-S-E-S-T-A-B-L-I-S-H-M-E-N-T-A-R-I-A-N-I-S-M
You could have heard a pin drop. Those boys stood completely silent, mouths gaping open, eyes wide. Like a gunfighter who's just proven he's the fastest and the baddest, I blew the smoke away from my mental gun and turned and strode away without saying another word. Keith swaggered, too, though he hadn't really done anything except arrange this informal gathering. He and I won a lot of respect with that one moment. I remember it like it was yesterday. The irony? None of those guys could have spelled antidisestablishmentarianism if their lives had depended on it. Not one of them. So, even if I had gotten it wrong, they would have never known the difference. As I walked away I overheard Keith brag to the group "He can spell poliomyelitis, too."
Dennis would later attend the University of Houston to acquire both his bachelor's degree and MBA. After joining the Gallup Organization he quickly rose through the ranks of the organization. Among his notable accomplishments were launching Gallup's Hispanic interviewing team, inventing marketing systems for Gallup's transition into becoming a powerful consulting company, and was handpicked by Gallup's CEO to lead Gallup's recent foray into faith communities. He was also a Senior Staff Writer for Gallup's Tuesday Briefing and on-line management journal, the GMJ.
Dennis is currently Vice President and Publicity Director for Cave Henricks Communications. Along with his work on business titles, he is heading up the company's newly-formed Christian Book Division.
Dennis is married to Susie and has two sons, Daniel and Dylan.