Dr. Roscoe E. Dean of Wessington Springs died Tuesday , October 27, 2009 at Weskota Manor in Wessington Springs. He was 92 years old. Funeral services were held at 2:00, Saturday, October 31 at Foothills Bible Fellowship Church (formerly Wessington Springs Free Methodist Church) in Wess. Spgs. followed by burial at Hope Cemetery, west of Wessington Springs. A remembrance service took place at the Wessington Springs United Church of Christ on Friday evening.

Roscoe Elmer Dean Jr. was born on May 15, 1917, the first of the three sons of Roscoe and Kate Christina (Powell) Dean at their farm home 9 ½ miles west of Wessington Springs. His grandparents on both sides, Theodore and Martha Jane (Orahood) Dean, and Mortimer and Mary (Kallis) Powell, were among the earliest homesteaders in Jerauld County. He was a visionary physician, author, advocate for his community and state, rancher, historian, researcher, teacher, military officer, businessman and patron of the arts.

Roscoe received his elementary education at Fauston School across the road from Templeton Church and 1 mile east of the Dean farm. In 1931, he entered Wessington Springs College High School as a freshman and continued his education there until his graduation from W.S. Junior College in 1937. He attended Greenville College in Illinois the following year and entered the University of South Dakota in 1939 where he graduated in 1940 with a major in zoology. Roscoe was recruited by the University of SD Medical School and in the fall of 1940 he began his medical studies there.

He was united in marriage with Helen Hoy of Gary, SD on August 31, 1941 in Gary. The young couple lived in Vermillion while Roscoe completed his second year at USD Medical School, then they moved to Philadelphia where he graduated from Temple University Medical School in 1943. Upon completion of a rotating internship at Ancker Hospital in St. Paul (now Regions Hospital) in 1944, he began a pathology residency there and was appointed chief surgical resident and Assistant Superintendent of Ancker Hospital. In October, 1944, he contracted pulmonary tuberculosis and was hospitalized for 9 months in St. Paul.

In 1945, he joined Helen and their 2 children in Wessington Springs to recuperate. In 1946 he established a medical practice in Wessington Springs and he opened his clinic there in early 1947. The citizens of Wessington Springs raised the funds to establish the first hospital in Wessington Springs and, in 1947, under Dr. Roscoe Dean’s leadership Memorial Hospital opened its doors. Dr. Roscoe served as a family physician in Wessington Springs and surrounding communities for 40 years.

Roscoe and Helen reared four children and were married for 47 years before her death in 1988. In February, 1989, he married Lucile Anderson Christensen and they were married for 20 years, enjoying travel, community activities and family.

Dr. Dean served on active duty during WWII while he was a medical student, and again during the Korean Conflict at William Beaumont Army General in El Paso. After discharge from active military duty, he served as medical officer and flight surgeon for the South Dakota Air National Guard and retired from military service in 1977 as a Lt. Colonel.

He was influential in improving health care access for rural communities. During Governor Frank Farrar’s administration, as coordinator for rural health care in SD, he chaired the State Comprehensive Health Planning Committee which set up the ambulance system manned by certified EMT’s. He also worked with the Presentation Sisters to set up the Nurse Practitioner program in the state. He was a founding member of the National Academy of Family Practice and was a board-certified Family Practice Physician. In 1974, he earned the Dr. C.B. Alford Award for outstanding service in the field of public health.

Dr. Dean was inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame in 1993 and was Director Emeritus of the Hall of Fame. He served multiple terms on the National Advisory Council of the Center for Western Studies. He received the Alumni Achievement Award from the University of SD in 1994, and was inducted by Central Christian College into the Academe of Achievers. During the 1989 South Dakota Centennial, he was state-wide coordinator of the Centennial Wagon Train events, and he chaired the 1982 Wessington Springs Centennial celebration. He served on numerous boards including the Wessington Springs College Board of Trustees. He owned and operated a cattle ranch, raising polled Herefords and quarter horses and he helped organize the Buggy Seat Cowboys Association. Dr. Roscoe was a friend to countless Native Americans and in May 1967, he was adopted by the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe as a non-Indian member. He belonged to Templeton United Church of Christ, American Legion, Kiwanis, Dunham Historical Society, American Quarter Horse Association, Polled Hereford Association, American Medical Association and the SD Medical Association.

Survivors include his wife Lucile Dean of Wessington Springs; his sons Roscoe E. Dean III and his wife Donna of Chamberlain, and Timothy Hoy Dean of Wessington Springs; his daughters Dr. Mary Jane Belz of Missoula, Montana, and Susan Janice Arnott and her husband Gail of Wessington Springs; and five grandsons – Roscoe E. Dean IV (Bangkok, Thailand), David Timothy Arnott and his wife Evelyn (Fairbanks, Alaska), Stephen Paul Arnott (Los Angeles, California) , Dr. Daniel Belz and his wife Sonja (Spokane, Washington), and Andrew Dean Arnott (Tucson, Arizona); his granddaughter Elisabeth Helen Belz (Vienna, Austria), his great-granddaughter, Ayla Grace Arnott (Fairbanks, Alaska), and his brother Harold Powell Dean and his wife Betty of Wessington Springs.

Preceding him in death were his first wife Helen Janice Dean, an infant son, Stephen Charles Dean, his parents, and a brother, Dr. Everett Dean.

Messages to the family may be sent in care of Susan Arnott, 109 College Ave. N., Wessington Springs, SD 57382.