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More than a decade ago as Dorris Dennis talked with University of Maryland, College Park students touring Beltsville's James E. Duckworth School for developmental disabilities, he received a welcome interruption from a student of his own.

"All of a sudden one of the kids said, ‘I did it. I did it,'" Dennis said.

Dennis turned to see one of his students tie her shoes for the first time.

"And they go, ‘I thought she already knew that,'" Dennis said.

Dennis told the undergraduates they could not assume anything in his line of work, for which he was recognized recently by the Arc of Prince George's County, a nonprofit support organization for residents dealing with developmental disabilities.

Dennis, 72, received an Excellence in Education award during the Arc's Countywide Awards Program, held Oct. 23 at Bowie's Florian Hall, for his work with special education students and vocational education at Central High School in Capitol Heights.

Dennis graduated from Middle Tennessee State University in 1972 with a recreation degree and minors in woodworking and sociology. While in Tennessee, Dennis applied for a job at Orange Grove Center, thinking it was a recreation center. He later learned it was a center for children with developmental disabilities. He taught those children woodworking and has continued working with special needs children ever since.

When his wife, Sylvia, took an administrative secretary position in the Washington, D.C.-area, Dennis began teaching at Broome Junior High School in Rockville in 1975, and in 1978 he accepted a position at Duckworth.

Dennis taught at Duckworth until 1992, when a former Duckworth colleague, Elizabeth Burley, encouraged him to come to Central High School where she was the special education department chairwoman. Today Burley is a county transition specialist for special education. Dennis also coaches bocce ball for Special Olympics Prince George's County and has been involved with Special Olympics since his early teaching years in Tennessee.

Dennis is the vocational coordinator for Central's Community Referenced Instruction, which introduces students to the working world. Dennis said the school has established relationships with Forestville's Mount Calvary Catholic Church, where students perform custodial work, and District Heights' Spauldings Library, where students shelve books. Dennis said he enjoys watching his students acquire new skills and demonstrate what they've learned.

"I don't ever use the term ‘can't' or ‘never,'" Dennis said. "Those are two words I don't ever allow students to use in my classroom."

Dennis also raises money for students struggling to afford an annual camping trip to Camp Pecometh in Centreville. Dennis said the trip is often the first time his students are exposed to fishing, hiking, canoeing and seeing wildlife such as wild turkeys and hawks.

"They truly, truly enjoy themselves," Dennis said "You see them learning, except they're outside learning at their own pace."

Former student Lorenzo Campbell, 29, of Clinton said Dennis was a father figure during high school who provided for students' needs by helping with school projects, paying for school lunch or tutoring for the Maryland Functional tests previously required for high school graduation. Campbell, a 1997 graduate, said if it were not for Dennis, many of his peers would not have graduated.

"It's just amazing some of the stuff that he'll do," Campbell said. "Even if it's coming to take you home or pick you up. He'll give you the shirt off his back. I used to skip class. He would come look for you."

Burley said Dennis is a role model for young men and continues to be a source of wisdom for his students after graduation. Burley said they ask him for advice on home buying and employment, and one young woman even asked Dennis to be her child's godfather. When, on occasion, parents put their children out, Burley said Dennis helped find them alternative housing and access to health care. Burley said such a thing happened at least once a year over the course of a decade.

"He's always a man where you never hear him raise his voice at all," Burley said. "He's always had a lot of patience with students. But he's also been very firm."

Campbell, who owns tow truck business L & P Towing, still talks to Dennis and said Dennis even came by to help knock down a wall in his home and erect a new one.

"If I need him for something right now, I can call him and he'll be here," Campbell said. "He's just a person that will always be by your side."