Mitchell Mark Meyer, 62, was born at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station Base Hospital in Lakehurst NJ on 13 June, 1958, to Kenneth W. Meyer and Janice Anderson Meyer. He died on 20 September, 2020, at Monument Regional Hospital in Rapid City SD.

In addition to New Jersey, Mitch had lived in Jacksonville FL, twice in St Paul MN, in Mt Prospect IL, Kadoka SD, and moved two different times to what became his final home town of Edgemont SD. His first four years of school were in St Paul, and three years were spent in elementary and junior high in Illinois. His family then returned to St Paul where he attended junior and senior high school at Murray. He was a “water baby,” starting his love of swimming in infancy. That culminated in being on the varsity and YMCA swim teams all of his years in Illinois and at Murray. He also loved playing baseball, pitching at both locations, and in Little League.

Mitch’s early life held tragedy for him, at age three having lost his brother to SIDS. At nine, he lost his beloved “Grammer” and “Pop-pop” and 13-year-old uncle Kim in an automobile accident; Kim had been like his older brother. Just one year later, he lost his surrogate grandpa to a sudden heart attack. Those early tragedies were forever embedded in his heart.

Mitch was always very patriotic. It was natural, then, that after high school he enlisted in the U.S. Army. He earned Expert status in the M-16 and Hand Grenade categories, along with his Parachute badge. He was variously based in Fort Campbell KY, Fort Benning GA, and as a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Kobbe in the Panama Canal Zone and Fort Bragg NC. During his Army tenure, he was injured in an accident which along with complications from COPD left him with progressively debilitating health. Not long before he died he told his family that, as Winston Churchill is credited with saying, “I love my country more than I love my self.”

After his military service he moved to South Dakota where his father was living. Until his health deteriorated he worked in the Wyoming oil fields and on road and bridge construction, and attended University of Nebraska--Chadron. He married Kathy Brafford of Edgemont SD, and they had one son, Ken, who also lives in Edgemont.

After living his early years in large urban areas, he fell in love with the great outdoors. He enjoyed hunting and target shooting, and just being outside in the quiet, away from hustle and bustle and often alone. He had found the right place to live in what his adopted state of South Dakota had to offer. Nothing was more enjoyable for him than spending time with nature.

Mitch is survived by his spouse Kathy and son Ken, stepsons Bob Ray Brafford of Gilette WY and Tim Valenti of Sioux Falls SD, father Kenneth Meyer of Oacoma SD and mother and stepfather Dr Jan Meyer and Roger Jorgenson of Rochester MN, and many aunts, uncles and cousins. He was preceded in death by his baby brother Monte, all of his grandparents, and his special uncle.