Richard Ross (Dick) Seaman was born on April 14, 1931 and went to be with Jesus on May 15, 2021, after living 90 years, 1 month and 1 day of a very full life.

Dick enjoyed life. If it was work, he tried to make fun out of it – not always successful at that, but he tried.  When he played, he did it fast.  He had a saying, “Mom said I wasn’t born in a hurry, but I’ve been in one ever since.”

Dick married his high school sweetheart, Rosella Pollman, on June 19, 1953 and to that union 5 children were born. Barbara (Glenn) Klinkel, Rapid City, SD; Betty (Gregg) Motley (deceased 1998) Overland Park, KS; Brad (Lynn) Seaman, Lenexa, KS; Benita (Gaylen) Engle, Eudora, KS; Boyd Allen (JoLynn) Seaman, Olathe, KS.  From those unions came 24 grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren.

Dick and Rosie did missionary work for several years for the American Sunday School Union. Then as the children grew, they joined the Mennonite Church of Onida and served there.  Dick was born on the family farm he lived on for 47 years.  He was always trying something different than what others were doing.  He didn’t really like to farm (that is drive a tractor) as he would much rather work with livestock.  He was the only Grade A Dairy Farmer in Sully County in the 50’s and 60’s.  After he sold the dairy, he was the first to develop irrigation from wells in Sully County.  He was one of the first to background feeder cattle.  He and his son Brad were perhaps the only people in Sully County to ever have a flock of 1,800 sheep that they would lamb out three times in two years and feed out the lambs at about 150% lamb crop.

Dick and Rosie moved to Nemo in 1978. They ranched, worked in a lumber yard and pastored the Nemo Church for 3 and a half years until the church was able to take on a pastor from Village Missions and later a full-time pastor.  They were active as worship leader and pianist respectively for 34 plus years, enjoying seeing the church grow to take on missionary and community projects to further the Lord’s work elsewhere.

In the Black Hills, he had the enjoyment of running cattle on a forest service permit on 10,000 or more acres of the forest. He was quite proud of the fact that in 22 years and approximately 4,500 yearlings, there were only 21 head he was not able to locate.

Some of the things he liked to do were snowmobiling while guiding others in the forest. He also put a lot of miles on his 4 wheelers checking cattle and then rounding them up in the Fall.

Dick and Rosie loved to have company. Besides having neighbors and church family over for meals, they belonged to a worldwide group, known as Mennonites Your Way.  They had many people from all over the world come to stay the night with them, kind of like a Bed and Breakfast.

Dick worked at Blue’s Building Center in Deadwood as a “gopher” for 15 years while Rosie and Benita operated the Shamrock Café which kept them all busy.

Retirement for both came in 1993 when they sold the café and settled down on the ranch. Then Dick got into developing a gravel business with a neighbor, Jerome Hall, that kept him out of mischief for several years until he sold his interest to the Halls.  His next venture was building speck homes on some of the acreage they had bought some 25 years earlier when they moved to the hills.  Three houses later, that experience was over because a buyer came along wanting the rest of the ranch worse than they did so they sold in 2009 and moved into Rapid City for retirement.

Not having anything to keep him occupied, Dick helped his grandson get into a restaurant (Tally’s Silver Spoon) in downtown Rapid City. We’ve been told on good authority that it is the longest running restaurant in Rapid City, at least since 1944, and still going strong. Even though he was retired, Dick was always busy finding ways to share his love of Christ with others.  He was involved with the Gideons; a weekly men’s Bible study called Eternal Investments; and hosted many Bible studies at his apartment complex.  While he had great wisdom, his desire to learn never diminished. 

After 90 years of being blessed by the Lord Jesus Christ, Dick said goodbye and went to sing in the choir of heaven, as singing was another thing he loved to do.

He was preceded in death by his wife Rosie and daughter Betty.