David Plocek Memorial Folder

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David Lee Plocek was born Sunday, June 5th, 1938, in Perkins County, SD, to Clarence and Dorothy Plocek.  Betty, Joyce, Dotty, and Mary Lou are his younger sisters.  Dad recalls that they walked to the Comstock School a half mile south of the farm and during snowy weather they followed the fence line to guide them.  Betty remembered that during the worst snowstorms, when the road wasn't passable, Clarence would hitch up the horses to the sleigh and take the kids to school over a pasture route.  These were "free-range" kids and times.  Dad spoke often of teacher Theresa Stelmack.  After eighth grade the children transitioned to Lemmon High School which was stressful after the familiarity of the country school family.  With Dad as the chauffer sometimes he would keep his sisters waiting for their ride home at the end of the school day.

Very near the farm to the south was a fishing area where Dad and Marvin took Jeralyn and Jeff to fish occasionally.  Dad thought the fish were bullheads.  Betty recounted that when there were fish to clean the kids had to clean them and Grandma cooked them up.

Dad said the barn was built while he was in grade school by Melvin Wilson.  Horses hoisted up the hay with a hay sling into the hayloft.  The milk from the cows was collected and sold.  At times, even after Dad was married, he would fetch the milk cows from the pasture.

Clarence and Dorothy had the second gravity-fed well in the area on a little hill just to the northeast of the house.  Joel and Grace Bishop had the first of that type of well.  Gravity brought the water via pipe down the hill to the house and farm.  Dad said he dropped frogs down the well and got in trouble for that.  There was a 4' tall red wall around the water tank.  Dad said he hid inside that wall from neighbor kids.

MaryLou remembers that they were taken to church every Sunday.  She says that often Dad would "borrow" change from Grandpa's piggy bank he kept in the basement.  Once they got to church, and unbeknownst to Grandma and Grandpa, Dad would slip out and have a hamburger at Archery's in downtown Lemmon.  He was always back in time for church.  He likes hamburgers.

One of his sister's told me that he would drop mice down the inside of their winter coats.  I am so thankful we never had a brother.

Joyce remembers when she went forward to accept Jesus as her Savior at the Lemmon Church of God.  Out of the corner of her right eye she saw David also praying the sinner's prayer with the Bishop boys praying with him.  I can remember Dad squeezing my hand through the years when the sinner's prayer was being prayed.  Most recently he bowed his head and closed his eyes with myself, JaRae, and Darrel in his hospital bed in Hettinger as we prayed that sinner's prayer with him for the last time.

David graduated from Lemmon High School in 1958 in a class of 58 students.  His first job after high school was working for Ruth and Kenny Friez hauling wheat.  Dad remembered nearly running into Kenny's truck because he was driving too fast.

June 26th, 1960, David married Goldie Haase in rural Elgin, North Dakota.  Betty, Joyce, Dotty, Marvin, and Morris were all part of the wedding party.  Horn-rimmed glasses and buzz cuts all around.  They lived on the Plocek family farm for a brief time until moving to Thunder Hawk near the grain elevator.  Dad recalled that the new trailer home they purchased came from Pierce Trailer Sales between Bismarck and Mandan, North Dakota.  Between 1962 and 1967 Jeralyn, JaRae, and Jodi were born.  While the kids were in grade school, Dad drove the Lemmon School bus route between Lemmon and Morristown.  He and Mom also cleaned the old Lemmon Elementary and Middle School building during the school year.  In 1976, the family moved to an acreage further south in Thunder Hawk and into the home they built there.  Dad worked for the Thunder Hawk Grain Elevator and then for Ed Kittelson along with Paul Huber for a few years.  During his employ at the grain elevator, he would bring home a large round stock tank every summer that we used as a swimming pool.  Country girls, country girls!  For many years Dad raised cattle and hogs on the farm in Thunder Hawk.  Dad then went to work for construction companies working on road projects in South Dakota and Wyoming for a number of years.  Beginning in the 1980's he started working trees during the warm months of the year and moving snow in the winter months.  Until 2024 he was still cleaning trees for property owners in North and South Dakota.

David is survived by Jeralyn (Darrel) Koupal, Redondo Beach, CA; JaRae (Doug) Faul, Pleasanton, TX/Bismarck, ND; Jodi (Kyle) Spearfish, SD; two grandsons, Brady Faul, Bismarck, ND; Bryce Faul, Pleasanton, TX; and four sisters, Betty (Marvin) Haase, Lemmon, SD; Joyce (Mike) Burk, Wylie, TX; Dotty (Dennis) Neuharth, Ponte Vedra, FL; Mary Lou (John) Riley, (Summerfield, FL); numerous nieces and nephews.  Preceding David in death are his parents, Dorothy (2009) and Clarence (2008) Plocek.

Please make memorial gifts to Turning Point Christian Center in Lemmon.  Graveside service at Greenhill Cemetery, 13th Avenue S.E., Lemmon, SD at 10:00 a.m. Friday, June 20th, 2025.  Celebration of Life service Saturday, July 5th, 2025, at 11:00 a.m., at Turning Point Christian Center, 214 2nd Avenue West, Lemmon, SD.  Lunch to follow.

I once scorned ev'ry fearful thought of death,

When it was but the end of pulse and breath,

But now my eyes have seen that past the pain

There is a world that's waiting to be claimed.

Earthmaker, Holy, let me now depart,

For living's such a temporary art.

And dying is but getting dressed for God,

Our graves are merely doorways cut in sod.

-Calvin Miller

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