Ivan Rand

Ivan Rand, 92, passed away Saturday, April 15, 2023 at Avera McKennan Medical Center in
Sioux Falls, South Dakota surrounded by family. Funeral services will be at 1:00 pm Saturday,
April 22, 2023 at Sunnycrest United Methodist Church, Sioux Falls with interment in the Monroe Reformed Church Cemetery. Visitation will be from 5-7 pm Friday evening at the Hofmeister-Jones Funeral Home, Parker.

Ivan Richard Rand was born on July 25, 1930, to Eilert (E.M.) and Annie (Gortmaker Stohr)
Rand. He grew up on a farm in rural Monroe, attended country school, and went to Parker High
School, graduating in 1949.

On July 6, 1968, Ivan was united in marriage to Evelyn Fay Winkel. They were blessed with
three children: Elden, Susan, and Ryan. Ivan’s life was saddened when Evelyn passed away
suddenly on April 23, 2001 and when Susan lost her battle with cancer on February 16, 2017.
He attended Spring Valley Baptist Church in his younger years, and subsequently Central
Church, First Assembly of God, and St. John American Lutheran Church.

Ivan farmed in the Humboldt and Colton areas. Throughout his life, Ivan experienced and lived
the full range of agricultural developments. He started his farming life with horse-drawn plows
and ended with his GPS-guided large tractors and precision planting equipment. He was still an
active farmer in 2022, continued to prescribe his own crop genetics and fertilizer proportions,
drove his GPS tractor for field preparation, and directed his spring planting in 2022.

Along with his farming history, mostly before his married life, Ivan had a myriad of interesting
and semi-mysterious (at least to his children) co-occupations including working as an artificial
inseminator - trained by Curtiss Breeding Services (reportedly the first person to successfully AI
a bison), working for a winter in San Diego for General Dynamics building fighter aircraft (USAF- F104), and sold crop insurance throughout the entire region. He sold seed corn during the 1970s-1990’s, and worked evenings at times at the Tri-Valley School, Minnehaha County
Courthouse, and the Minnehaha Courthouse Museum.

Ivan’s outgoing personality and incredible face and name memory, combined with his life and
working experiences throughout the region, contributed to his ability to almost instantly develop
a connection and ability to chat (for almost an infinite time) with anyone. Ivan was very proud of the accomplishments of his children and their spouses. Anyone who talked with Ivan for any amount of time knew about his children and what they were up to (whether they knew Ivan
before or not!). His most recent family activity was a trip to Branson, MO in early summer 2022
with all his immediate family members and grandchildren which included train riding, eating
14-inch pancakes, attending numerous musical productions, and going to an auto museum
where he explained the development of cars that he drove and repaired from the Model T (his
father’s Model T remains in the Rand family) to newer models throughout the several following
decades.

Ivan contracted an infection in the summer of 2022, and throughout the next several months,
had improvements, complications, improvements, then exacerbations requiring intensive unit
care which ultimately resulted in peaceful passage with his family present on April 15, 2023.

Ivan is survived by his special friend JoAnn Garner; his children Elden (Wendy), Sioux Falls;
Ryan (Kayla), Sioux Falls; and Susan’s husband, Chris Hill, Sioux Falls. Grandchildren are
Maddie, Sophie, Alexis, and Alaric Rand. Ivan is also survived by his nephews and niece:
James (Sharla) Rand, Kathryn (Brian) Schmidt and Richard (Demme) Rand, and many special
cousins and great nieces and nephews.

In addition to his wife and daughter, Ivan was also preceded in death by his brother Robert (who
was killed in the Korean War), his brother Marlyn, his sister-in-law Caryl, and nephew Larry
Rand.

In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation directly to your charity of choice, or to your home church in honor of Ivan.