I was born and raised in Prince Edward Island, Canada, home of "Anne of Green Gables". I moved to the U.S. in 1987 and became a U.S. citizen in 2003.

I am of Scottish heritage. I am the 14th great grandson of King James IV and Janet Kennedy, the daughter of the 2nd Lord Kennedy. I descend from their son, James Stewart, the Earl of Moray, through the Stewarts of Moray and the Stewart Barons of Ardgown and Blackhall. Robert Stewart, my 5th great grandfather, moved our family to the New World in 1770, when he received a royal land grant from King George III of Lot 18 (about 93 square km) in the newly formed colony that became Prince Edward Island. I am the Baron of Cowie. Noblesse oblige is an old phrase that has guided our family for centuries. I come from a long line of royal officials, civil servants, elected leaders, teachers, and ministers.

I was a techie in a previous life. I wrote my first program at the age of 11 (in IITRAN on punched cards). I worked as a programmer for four years while earning my Bachelor of Computer Science from Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia (where I learned object-oriented programming in Simula before the name OOP was invented). I earned an MBA from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario in 1984 and spent three years on the faculty of the Queen's Business School teaching statistics and MIS. I did my PhD at the University of Arizona in Tucson. I joined the Terry College of Business at The University of Georgia in 1991, and was promoted to associate professor in 1995 and full professor in 1999. In 2000, I moved to Indiana University to accept the John T. Chambers Chair of Internet Systems. John is an IU grad and was CEO of Cisco Systems. In my spare time, I enjoy snorkeling, boogie boarding, skiing, and collecting antique maps. The map on the right is a map of Scotland made by John Speed in 1611.

I am married to L. DeVon Rightley-Tucker, Baroness of Cowie. DeVon is the founder of 100 Workforce Solutions, a training and development firm. She is also an award-winning pencil artist. We both enjoy traveling, especially in the UK, Europe and Hawaii, and end up splitting our time between Bloomington and Floyds Knobs, Indiana. We also both love driving classic and modern performance cars, and really have too many of them: an Excalibur Phaeton, a Corvette Stingray (C8), a Genesis G90, and a Mercedez Benz C350, plus two Toyotas. I keep thinking a classic Bentley, Rolls Royce, or Morgan would be a nice addition, but...

I have a wonderful son, Alexander (Alec) Stuart Dennis, Younger of Cowie, born in 1993. He's been using the computer since 1995 and wrote his first letter (by hand without help) in 1996 (Ok, so it was only one word, but it wasn't bad for a 3-year old). He’s since gone on to bigger and better things. He graduated from Indiana University in 2015 (major in Behavioral Economics) and worked as a consultant for Bain & Company in Chicago for two years. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland in 2022 and is an Assistant Professor in the Ivy College of Business at Iowa State University. He is married to Vianna Newman Dennis. Vianna is also an IU graduate and is a Ph.D. student in Art History at the University of Maryland.

We have endowed scholarships at the Guildry of Stirling, Acadia University, Queen’s University, the University of Arizona, and two at Indiana University (one in the Kelley School and one in the Media School). We have also established an annual award for civil service on Prince Edward Island in honor of my late father, Doug Dennis.