Helen Amundson, age 98, died on December 16, 2020, at Hospice House in Rapid City. Before her admittance to Hospice House on November 20, she had been a resident at Victorian Assisted Living for 6 years. She was born in August 1922 in Bath, New York, to Eben and Flossie (Inscho) Palmer. She had one older sister, Alice, and a younger brother, Roger. When Helen was 8 years old, her mother died of a heart attack and the three children went to live with their mother’s sister Kitty and her husband Deyo Johnson, and their two children, Doris and Clair.

Helen graduated from Haverling High School in Bath shortly before her 16th birthday and then attended business school. In 1941, she accepted a civil service job in Washington, D.C. at the War Department. She lived in a boarding house where she met Irving Amundson, who had moved to Washington from Tioga, North Dakota, to work at the Veterans Administration. Irving and Helen were married in Bath, New York, in April 1942. They celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary in April 2017. Irving died in January 2018.

Irving went into the Army in 1942 and served in various locations in the U.S. until his discharge in 1946. He and Helen moved back to his home state of North Dakota in late 1946. Their daughter Karen was born in 1947, followed by sons Philip in 1949 and Ralph in 1952. The family lived in several places in North Dakota until 1960, when they moved to Rapid City, South Dakota, where Irving worked in the finance office at Ellsworth Air Force Base. Later that year, Helen began working as a secretary at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. She retired in 1984, after working for many years in the President’s office at the School of Mines.

Both before and after retirement, Helen and Irving enjoyed traveling. They visited all 50 states and several foreign countries.

Helen is survived by her three children: Karen Grover, Philip Amundson and Ralph (Janet) Amundson, all of Rapid City; her grandchildren Christine (Shan) Grover Samansky of Copperas Cove, Texas; Josh Amundson (Kelly Brown), and Justin (Marie) Amundson, all of Rapid City; her great-grandchildren Alanna Grover, Clifford Hall- Amundson, Ava Amundson, Brandon and Alyssa Amundson, Tricia Erhart Etherington, and Summer Erhart, as well as 4 step-grandchildren, and numerous step great- grandchildren. She is also survived by her sister-in-law Elaine Heen and numerous nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her husband Irving, parents and siblings, sons-in-law David Strand and Rennie Grover, daughter-in-law Katherine Amundson, and grandchildren David Grover and Alicia Amundson.

Helen was a wonderful wife, mother, and grandmother. She will be greatly missed.