Willaim "Bill" N. ENGEL

William "Bill" N. Engel
May 18, 1934 - November 05, 2020

William “Bill” N. Engel, 86 of Sioux Falls died on November 5, 2020 at Sanford Canton-Inwood Medical Center. Funeral Services will be 10:00 AM, Monday, November 9 at George Boom Funeral Home. Public visitation will be from 3:00 until 5:00 PM, Sunday, November 8, 2020 also at the funeral home. Due to COVID-19, masks are required.

Son of Walter and Josephine Engel, was born May 18, 1934 in Lake Andes, SD.

Bill attended school in Lake Andes. Soon after graduation, Bill began working for the city maintaining their equipment. A few years later Bill accepted a job working for Ebson’s Construction and left Lake Andes, moving to Pierre, SD. He continued maintaining the machinery used to construct roads for many years. Although he moved from Lake Andes, he always returned to hunt and fish the area. Bill was a handsome man with a personality to match. He certainly had a way with the ladies.

As a very young man he captured the heart of the first of his wives and they had six children together: Randy, Rick, Ruth, Rob, Ronnie, and Russell. This relationship came to an end and Bill quickly found himself smitten by a new young woman. Although the couple were not together long, they were blessed with two sons: Billy and Terry. In 1962 Bill met a young woman purely by accident one might say. They were roller skating when a young man fell in front of a young woman named Doris. She tripped over the man and Bill swooped in and saved her from a terrible fall. He flashed that infamous smile and that was all it took! She was just eighteen years old and he was 28, but love knew no bounds. Bill had found the love of his life.

Skating was something they both enjoyed very much and were part of a group of skaters who decided to skate the 59 miles from Gettysburg to Pierre, SD. Bill had new wheels and all other parts to fix the skates along the way. The police escorted the group into Pierre around midnight. The Argus Leader did a big story on them that was photographed the next day. The couple lived together for a while before moving to Sioux Falls, SD in 1965.

Once the couple had moved to Sioux Falls, Bill and Doris were united in marriage on January 28, 1967 at Faith Lutheran Church. This union produced two daughters: Lori, and Lisa. By this time Bill was working in Ivanhoe, SD maintaining road equipment. Bill and his young family traveled between Ivanhoe and Sioux Falls regularly until 1969 when a new opportunity arose. Bill and Doris took over the management of Great Bear Ski Valley outside of Sioux Falls, SD. Bill oversaw all the maintenance and outside duties while Doris oversaw the chalet and everything inside. They were quite the team. Bill was strong and fast! Many people tried to ride the hills of Great Bear, but few succeeded. Bill was known to grab the rider and yank them off the bike. Bill had an old VW with no body on it that they had many hours of enjoyment with on the 220 acres of Great Bear. During these years Bill and Doris had many, many adventures with their very special friends Bill and Mary. The four of them road their motorcycles all over the country and made the yearly pilgrimage to Sturgis. They set up their tents and would camp anywhere. They found joy wherever they were and enjoyed every adventure that life brought their way.

Bill was a prankster and a joker. He always had a funny saying or comment to make when you least expected it. Bill’s pranks were often orchestrated out of normal everyday events. One day Bill was fixing an outside grill and he knew he had it fixed, but no one else did. He had one of his son’s hold the igniter under the pretense that it was not operational. Bill proceeded to click the igniter giving his son a shock.

He enjoyed the element of surprise. One of his favorite pranks was to get close enough to the electric fence to touch it and then grab Doris giving her a shock. She scolded him every time. He would just grin his crooked grin. If you got that grin given to you, he had either just gotten away with something or was about to. It was always followed by laughter. Bill and Doris left their positions at Great Bear in the early 1990’s. They worked so well together they were both hired at the YMCA café where they worked until it closed on June 25, 2006. Bill then retired at the age of 72.

In 2014 Bill was diagnosed with cancer and had to have surgery on his face and gums. After that it was necessary to have a feeding tube for his nourishment. Bill had some other health issues in the years that followed but was still living at home with Doris until September 11, 2019 when the difficult decision was made to move him to the nursing home in Canton, SD.

He enjoyed remembering events of his life as a young man in Lake Andes and sharing them with everyone. He was happy to joke about things when he could and chuckle when others told the story right up to the end. In the weeks before his passing he enjoyed the recanting of his son’s memory of an event that involved him jumping on a Shetland pony with another family member intentionally causing the pony to buck, tossing them both to the ground. Bill and his pranks and his wonderful smile will be greatly missed by all who knew him.

Grateful for having shared his life are his wife, Doris; children, Lisa (Rick Langenfeld) Campbell of Sioux Falls, Lori (John Wasson) Davis of Renner, Randy (Jodi) Engel of Canton, SD, Rick (Jodie) Engel of Britton, SD, Rob Engel of Rapid City, Ron (Becky) Engel of Rapid City, Ruth Sejnoha of Mitchell, SD, Billy Goody of Washington; grandchildren, Brianna and Braedon (Jade); and great-grandchild, Lyric, and many other grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Bill was preceded in death by his parents, Walter and Josephine; sons, Russell and Terry, sisters, Lila and Carol, and brother, Eddie.

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Contributed on 3/19/22 by 9katz
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