Dean H. Highfill, 78, of Rapid City, died at his home on Friday, May 12, 2023.  Dean was born August 9, 1944 on an Army base in South Carolina to O. Thomas Highfill and Carroll Highfill. After the war, the family moved to Atchison, Kansas and from there to Casper, Wyoming. Dean had a great time growing up with his brother and two sisters. He especially loved playing baseball and fishing. The family moved to Douglas, Wyoming where Dean graduated high school in 1962. He had already developed his golf game to near scratch and played in several dance bands. There were some years at Casper College and St. Benedict's in Atchison, Kansas where he furthered his love of music and literature. Summers were spent working as a ranch hand for John Dilts and honing his golf game. At his father's urging, he joined the National Guard and found a love of photography. Back in Casper, he formed his own dance band and played with the Casper Symphony. A job with a title company led him to employment as a landman for Gulf Oil Corporation during the oil boom of the late 70's. There he met Nancy, and they enjoyed many adventures together, the greatest of them was welcoming their three daughters into the world. The oil bust of the early 90's saw him unemployed until a call from Chuck Townsend (who remembered him from business dealings as "not a suit") brought him to Newcastle, Wyoming where he worked for Townsend Company Inc. until his retirement in 2009.

A self-described renaissance man, Dean was as adept at quoting Shakespeare as he was at cussing. His lifelong love of music, books, animals and Wyoming were constants, but his ever rotating hobbies were legendary. He would go all in gardening, birding, baking bread, training for a marathon, forming a jazz band, listening to operas. Eighty-four operas. Everything was a deep dive. If an author appealed to him, he read everything the author wrote, plus the literary criticism of it and possibly a biography or two. Sunflowers were raised cured and turned into bird food. Flour for bread was stoneground at home and baked into hearty loaves from old recipes. His deep dive into opera was not as appreciated by his family as the endless supply of amazing bread, but they survived it.

Dean's three daughters were the joy of his life, and just being together as a family his happiness. Surviving a nearly fatal cardiac event in 2003, he was deeply grateful for the grace of the next twenty years, which were filled with graduations, weddings, travel, and grandchildren. Dean was preceded in death by his parents, his sisters, Mary Harman and Peggi Duell and sister in law, Robin Highfill. He is survived by his wife, Nancy, daughters Maggie (Declan) Fleming, Bessie (Clinton) Colgrove and Nikki (Tyler) Bartlett, brother Bill Highfill, sister in law Judy Bouts, grandchildren Fianna, Lincoln, Lucy, Clodagh, Winnie, Theo and Max and many dear nephews and nieces.

Friends may make a donation in his name to an animal shelter or nature conservancy of their choice.

A memorial Eucharist will be offered at 1:30pm on Saturday, May 20, 2023 at Emmanuel Episcopal Church.  Inurnment will be in the Emmanuel Memorial Garden following the service.