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Submitted: 8/10/24 • Approved: 8/13/24 • Last Updated: 8/16/24 • R276098-G0-S3
Dr. Michael R. R. Ferrell
September 23, 1926 - February 24, 2022
Dr. Michael R. Ferrell died peacefully February 24, 2022, at Dougherty Hospice in Sioux Falls. He was 95.
Funeral services will be held 10:30 am Tuesday, March 1, 2022, at First United Methodist Church in Sioux Falls. The family will be present to greet friends from 5-7pm Monday, at Miller Funeral Home, 507 S. Main Ave., Sioux Falls, SD. A livestream of the funeral service will be available at sfumc.org. The committal service will be observed privately at a family plot at Woodlawn Cemetery in Sioux Falls.
Michael Rene Ferrell was born September 23, 1926, in Patterson New Jersey. He was the only child of Michael and Rose (Caggiano) Ferrell. He enjoyed a rich early life with his extended Italian-American family and was very close to his cousins Julian, Louis, Anthony and Richie.
He received his early education in Huntington, Long Island and attended New York University before enlisting in the Navy in 1944 at age 17.
During World War II Mike served as a medical corpsman for one year and then was sent to the V12 Officer’s Training Program at the University of Colorado, in Boulder. In 1946 he was discharged from the Navy and entered premed at CU, graduating with his BA degree in 1947. During school Mike was a member of Phi Delta Theta. In 1946 he met the love of his life, Patricia Auger, also a student at CU. They became engaged and were married in June,1948.
In September of 1948, he entered CU School of Medicine in Denver. Their first child, Joan, was born in 1951. Mike completed his MD degree in 1952 and was awarded AOA for highest academic honors, graduating #2 in his class.
After graduation, Mike entered the U.S. Army Medical Corps and was at Fitzsimmons Hospital for his internship and residency training. During the residency, two more children, Marianne and Robert, were born. Three months after the last birth, the family left for Germany, where Mike was Assistant chief of Medicine at the 98th General Hospital in Neubrucke. The whole family enjoyed countless adventures during three wonderful years in Germany and traveled widely throughout the European continent.
In 1960, upon discharge from the army and on the advice of his great friend and best man, Vincent Cutshall, Mike and his family moved to Sioux Falls where he began practicing internal medicine at the Donahoe clinic.
Mike excelled at his practice and was beloved by patients and colleagues alike. He oversaw and was personally responsible for the advancement of the practice of Internal Medicine from a primary-care focus to a full tertiary care regional medical center. He was elected medical director at Central Plains Clinic during some of the most trying times in the Sioux Falls medical community. His vision in molding CPC into a highly respected, multi-specialty clinic was one of the major medical events in the community in the last century.
He was an assistant clinical professor at the University South Dakota School of Medicine, Chairman of the Department of Medicine at McKennan Hospital, and held numerous offices at the South Dakota State Medical Association. He introduced the concept of urgent care clinics to the region. He had a passion for medical education and was actively engaged in the residency training programs and received numerous teaching awards. One of his most treasured accolades was being elected an Honorary Fellow of the American College of Physicians by his peers.
Mike always said if he could change one thing in medicine it would be to restore the public confidence in doctors as healers, rather than as business people.
Mike and Pat had an active social life with countless friends who enjoyed playing cards, golfing, bowling and neighborhood picnics and dinner parties. They spent many holidays and family gatherings with Pat’s brother Jack, his wife, Martha, and their children, Carol, Rick and Dave. Many summer vacations were passed in Estes Park, Colorado with Pat’s mother, Elma Auger. The family’s love of the Colorado mountains went back to Pat’s childhood.
Mike retired from medicine in 1992 and he and Pat thoroughly enjoyed getting away from the cold of South Dakota and golfing to their hearts content in Arizona. In June, 1998 Mike and Pat celebrated 50 years of marriage with a large gathering of family and friends. Pat died in June of 2000 after a long progressive illness.
Mike fell in love again and married Suzanne Kocon of Sioux Falls in October of 2001. Mike and Sue enjoyed 20 wonderful years together. They spent winters in Arizona, golfing and socializing with the community of friends they developed over the years. They especially enjoyed international travel, searching out their roots in Italy, Germany, and Austria as well as traveling throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Grateful for having shared Mike’s life are his wife Sue; two daughters, Joan (Steve Langehough) and Marianne Watt (Bruce); a son Robert (Dawn); Sue’s daughter Holly Van’t Land (Jim); daughter-in-law Jorjann Blake (Brian); son Douglas Blake.
There was a special place in his heart for his grandchildren: Simon (Kate), Elliot, Spencer (Tonya) Ferrell; Adam (Anna Wingfield), Ian Langehough; Erin Crandall (Collin), Robert, Quinn (Miranda Gathright) Watt; great-grandchildren August and Henry Ferrell (Simon), Penelope Ferrell (Spencer), Jude Langehough (Adam).
He was preceded in death by his first wife, Marjorie Patricia, his parents and Sue’s son Brian Blake.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to First United Methodist Church or to Watt/Ferrell Medical Student Scholarship Fund, USD Medical School.
Contributed on 8/10/24 by 9kat
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Record #: 276098