Dale Arthur Jensen 90 of Rapid City passed away Tuesday, May 3, 2022.

Visitation will be 4:00pm-6:00pm Thursday, May 26 at Osheim & Schmidt Funeral Home. A funeral service will be 10:00am Friday, May 27 at Osheim & Schmidt Funeral Home, with Rev. Brent Woodard officiating. Interment will follow at Pine Lawn Memorial Park.

Dale was born in Rapid City on December 30, 1931, to Bernice "Bun" Keffeler and Corliss "Tim" Jensen. They lived on the family ranch near Farmingdale until he was about six years old, and his parents divorced. After that, he and his younger sister Bonnie were raised by Bernice in Rapid City. When Dale was a teenager, Corliss returned from his time running trap lines in Alaska, to run the family ranch and Dale began working there with his father. This is when he learned to hunt, ride, raise cattle, work on tractors, chop ice, fix fence and lots of other skills that are necessary to ranch life. Dale also got involved in 4H as a teenager and that experience stayed with him. In his later years, he was a supporter of the Rapid City 4H and the Boys Club.

Dale graduated from Rapid City High School in 1950 and briefly attended South Dakota State University taking mostly agriculture classes. He left college and joined the Army in 1954, serving two years while stationed in Germany. It was during this time that he learned aerial and still photography and was assigned to take pictures documenting various military events. His time in Europe was relatively short, but it had a profound effect on his outlook. He valued the experience of travel and made sure that his family was included on as many travel opportunities as possible. After the Army, he finished college at the University of Denver and graduated in 1959 with a degree in psychology and an entrepreneurial interest in business.

He returned to Rapid City in 1960. He met Nancy Jo Long in 1962, when she was working as a registered nurse at the hospital. When they first met, Dale thought she would be the perfect girlfriend for his roommate. But that blind date never materialized, and after he got to know her, he decided she should be his girlfriend. She became his lifelong partner when they married in 1964. They had two children: a son, Thomas in 1965 and a daughter, Anne in 1967.

The next few years were very busy as Dale had decided to buy a business called Rushmore Photo; a small film and photography operation in town that was struggling to make money. He and Nancy were looking for a spot to build a home and also have enough room to house the new business. In 1968, they found a barren hilltop south of town, perched on the edge of a canyon known to the folks at Reptile Gardens as a great place to harvest rattlesnakes from their sandstone dens. The views from this hilltop included both the Black Hills and Rapid City and even extended out to Thompson's Butte and the Railroad Buttes (located near the ranch). This was the perfect spot for the family homestead, so they bought the land and dug a well. The project was a slow one however, requiring enormous patience from Nancy. Dale didn't want the bank to hold the title to his house, so they saved up money for every step of the building process. His aversion to being in debt was a trait that would continue to guide his actions over the course of his life. A few years passed and finally, in the winter of 1971 -1972, Dale and several others, including cousins who worked in carpentry and rock laying, built the house. In April of 1972, he and Nancy moved the family in once the doors, windows and roof were up, and plywood floors were nailed down. But the list of things that were unfinished was a long one: no heating system, no kitchen, no bathrooms on the main floor.  The first year of living was a "rustic" experience. Anyone brave enough to go barefoot to breakfast would surely need to have slivers removed from their feet.

Dale and Nancy took Rushmore Photo from a small operation to a big business, becoming wholesalers of Kodak film across the Black Hills and Badlands. Nancy left her job in nursing to fill in as a temporary bookkeeper for the business in 1970, but that temporary job would last her decades, as she went on to run the warehouse, handle all the orders and invoicing and manage the financial end of the business. Dale used his photography skills learned in the Army, to capture landscapes of all the sights: Mt. Rushmore, the Needles, Harney Peak, Spearfish Canyon, various tunnels and bridges, the Badlands and even Devil's Tower. They sold the images as postcards, calendars, books and posters. During the nearly 30 years they ran the company, they developed a tight network of friends that were all trying to navigate the day-to-day chaos of businesses based on the ever-changing tourism industry in western South Dakota. Dale served on the Black Hills Badlands and Lakes Association, as well as on the South Dakota Tourism board. Dale and Nancy were also some of the founding members of a national organization: the Postcard Distributors of North America and participated for over 25 years. They both served as officers on the Board and made lifelong friends across the country who all ran similar businesses.

Dale enjoyed gardening and was undaunted by the challenging conditions that the land offered on his rocky, windblown, sun-drenched hilltop. He proudly harvested radishes, carrots, peas, garlic, zucchini and of course rhubarb! Nancy cooked the rhubarb into jam and pies. But Dale's favorite summertime treat was a home-grown tomato, sliced thick on a piece of bread and butter. The idea of a vine-ripened beefsteak tomato kept him gardening well into his 80's.

He was also an avid deer and antelope hunter. Hunting on the Circle Star ranch was an event for the whole family and usually included the extended families of his cousins. Endless hunting stories arose from hundreds of bumpy, high-speed pickup rides across the prairie, or from walking through the Cottonwood trees along Rapid Creek to flush out the deer.

Dale and Nancy enjoyed traveling and their destinations included, Alaska, Africa, Australia, Barbados, Canada, Central America, China, Denmark, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, and Russia.

Dale is survived by his wife Nancy; children Tom, Anne Woodland (Eric); and grandchildren: Soren and Téa. He is also survived by many nieces, nephews, cousins, and their spouses. He was predeceased by his parents and his sister Bonnie Daniel.

Dale walked easily between country living and city life. Whenever things got too crazy in town, he would take off for the ranch. He had a C.B. radio installed at the house and in his Dodge pickup truck (known affectionately as Ol' Blue) and his Rushmore Photo delivery van. That way Nancy was able to talk to him from the house while he was out on the road. All she had to do was pick up the C.B. mike and say, "Breaker breaker, hey Kodak Cowboy, you got your ears on?"

We think of Dale as a self-made man as he came from meager beginnings, worked extremely hard and had a very successful business. But behind every self-made man stands the woman who holds him up. He couldn't have known back in 1964 when he married Nancy that she would turn out to be equally fierce, hardworking, independent, and stubborn. She stood by him through it all over the years. Some of the challenging events included her finding rattlesnake babies on the basement floor in 1973 and lightning striking the house 5 times (and counting). Dale would say these events "build character". Nancy cared tirelessly for him over the last decade of his life as his mental and physical health declined. She wouldn't have had it any other way.

We are extremely grateful to the memory care staff at Peaceful Pines for the patience and care you provided to Dale.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Dale's honor can be made to the Club for Boys or the charity of your choice.