Gary Bjerke

Gary Bjerke passed away due to a short illness of esophageal cancer on Sunday, September 22, 2019.

Visitation will be held at the Furness Funeral Home from 4-7 PM on Thursday, September 26, 2019.

Funeral services will be Friday, September 27, 2019, at 11 AM at the Crocker Lutheran Church of Crocker, SD. Minister Marion Grimes will be officiating. Burial will follow at the St. Thomas Cemetery in rural Crocker.  Active Casketbearers will be Shane and Heidi Larson, Sara Brosz, Alex Reppe, Amanda Fromdahl, and Matt Lenzen.  The honorary casketbearers will be all of his other nieces, nephews and the co-workers at Meier Farms.

Gary Kenneth Bjerke was born July 21, 1957, in Webster, SD, to Oscar and Louise (Skavang) Bjerke of rural Bradley. He was baptized at Calvary Lutheran Church of Bradley, and confirmed at Crocker Lutheran Church of Crocker, SD. He graduated from Bradley High School in 1975. After high school he worked for Chef Reddy Foods in Clark for a short time before deciding to work on the family dairy farm with his dad.

On May 8 ^th , 1982, he married Cathy (Reppe) Bjerke at St. Anthony Catholic Church in Bristol, SD. They bought the farm he grew up with in 1987 and continued to live there until his death. To this union, two sons, Thomas and Tanner, were born. Due to not wanting to expand the dairy and wanting to spend more time with his sons, in the early spring of 1994, Gary got out of the business and rented out pasture and enrolled in CRP programs. That summer, Gary sprayed many dairy barns within a 100 mile radius for Orkin. On November 27, 1994, he began work with Persona in Watertown, SD, for 12 years. Getting tired of the long commute, he began work for Clark Veterinary Service in October 2006, working cattle and delivering feed to farms for nine years. Taking an interest in the art of taxidermy, in the spring of 2004 he attended the Missoula School of Taxidermy at Thompson Falls, MT, for two months. His highlight there was harvesting a black bear in the Kootenai National Forest and living at Trout Creek near the mountains. The family renovated the milk room on the farm and opened Spring Valley Taxidermy for a part-time hobby. Gary thoroughly loved coaching his boys and nephews in the Bradley and Conde Little League and always attended their son's school activities. Devastation hit on February 26, 2011, when his oldest son Thomas passed away, leaving a forever void of sadness in his heart.

In August of 2015, he began work for his brother-in-law and Cathy's sister Christine, of Meier farms, helping with spring work up to harvest but taking winters off to do taxidermy. One of Gary's highlights was winning the 2018 NESD Vietnam Veterans of America Elk Hunt Raffle where his wife and Tanner assisted in his harvesting of a bull elk. Gary served on the Spring Valley Township board for 15 years, currently a member of the SD Taxidermy Association, currently serving on the Clark County Pro Pheasants board for approximately 20 years, a lifetime member of the NRA. Most of all he loved his family, faith, and visiting (mainly listening). He thoroughly enjoyed his Labrador companions, Champ, Gauge, Bjerk, our wildlife farm where he hunted many pheasants with friends and hunted deer and geese with family. Gary never saw the need to travel as "we have everything right here."

Grateful for having shared his life are his wife Cathy of Bradley, SD; and son Tanner of Watertown, SD; his sister Kathy (Laird) Larson and her children Shane, Heidi, and Sara (Adam) Brosz; his sister Janet (Tony) Fromdahl and daughter Amanda; and several in-laws, nieces and nephews, and many great-nieces and nephews.

Preceding him in death were his grandparents George and Ragna Bjerke and Knute and Inga Skavang; parents Oscar and Louise Bjerke; son Thomas Bjerke, as well as his father- and mother-in-law Lyle and Donna Reppe and his sister-in-law Lorie Obermeier.

In Lieu of flowers, memorials would be greatly appreciated.

Funeral arrangements are with the Furness Funeral Home at Clark where there is an on-line registry at www.furnessfuneralhome.com

Click on the following link to watch a memorial video for Gary:

https://www.tributeslides.com/tributes/show/MQWBHM35M734LX6D