Along with 11 other current and former members of the Liberian government, he was tried by a military tribunal and executed by firing squad ten days after the coup.

He attended the College of West Africa in Liberia, before going to the United States, where he entered Lincoln University, Pennsylvania, graduating in 1954 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science.

Dennis was executed by soldiers on April 22, 1980, at Barclay Beach, Monrovia, alongside 12 other former leading government officials:[6] Frank E. Tolbert (brother of President William Tolbert and President Pro-Tem of the Liberian Senate); E. Reginald Townsend, National Chairman of the True Whig Party; Cyril Bright, former Minister of Planning and Economic Affairs; Chief Justice James A.

[7][8][9] According to journalist Larry C. Price, Dennis was the last man to be shot and defiantly stared his killers down whilst uttering a prayer before his execution at the hands of Samuel Doe's regime.

[10] The C. Cecil Dennis Jr Auditorium, part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building in Monrovia, Liberia, is so-named in his honor.