Richard K. "Dick" Tobias, 90, a 65-year resident of Rapid City, died Aug. 2 at Westhills Village.

Dick was born April 5, 1933, in Hoven, South Dakota, a descendent of the town's namesake and the son of A.J. and Mary (Derouchey) Tobias. He arrived in the middle of seven children in a large Catholic family, where he learned to share. As an adult, whenever he ate a whole banana all by himself, he felt rich.

He attended Wilson Elementary School in Rapid City, where his classmates included his lifelong friends, Mark Mollers and Pev Evans. His family moved to Hot Springs, so that his parents could run the golf course. There he developed a powerful drive and an excellent short game. He also played basketball in high school. He was a happy-go-lucky guy with handsome brown eyes who loved shooting pool when Marlene J. Andersen met him. When they graduated in the Hot Springs High School Class of 1951, Dick's dad gave him a Hampden watch, which he treasured until the day he died.

Dick attended William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, for two years and then served in the U.S. Army for two years, serving stateside as the Korean War wound down. He married Marlene on June 4, 1954, in Hot Springs. Despite his better judgment, he wore a spray of lilies of the valley on his lapel.

Soon his four children, Jamie, Jennifer, Greg, and Linnea started showing up. Dick graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Colorado College in Colorado Springs in 1957 with a bachelor's degree in economics. By 1958 he and Marlene moved to Rapid City, where he joined a local accounting firm and became a certified public accountant. His youthful face led clients to ask who that 12-year-old was doing their taxes. Nonetheless, in 1962 he became a partner in Dunmire, Short, Tobias and Paulsen. Dick spent 22 years at the firm. After he left, he served as managing partner for Baken Park Partners for 14 years.

At 6'2", Dick came to resemble Don Draper of "Mad Men," but with a strong moral core. He was the classic American self-made man who worked hard and had the help of the G.I. bill, an FHA mortgage, and his excellent taste in friends. He was also deeply loved by his wife and family.

He helped to found Westhills Village and served on its board for many years. He served as chair of the board of trustees of Rapid City Regional Hospital. He also served as a board member for Arrowhead Country Club, Black Hills Playhouse, Black Hills Children's Home Society, and other organizations. He served as president of the State Society of CPAs and of the South Dakota Board of Accountancy.

Dick served as chair of the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation. He was also a trustee of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial Society, helping to raise funds for a major renovation of the site. His grandchildren still love hunting for his name on a plaque whenever they visit Mount Rushmore.

Dick's children found him at his most relaxed and happiest during their times together at the family cabins in Custer State Park, first at Legion Lake, and later at Blue Bell, where he often cast his line into a deep pool along French Creek. Often, the rainbows weren't biting because the creek was running too high or too low, yet the black cast-iron skillet at the cabin still fried many trout dinners.

At the cabin, Dick relished a fudgsicle or a cold beer after fishing. He delighted in demolishing his wide-eyed children (and later grandchildren) with his lightning speed and competitive drive, at a multiple solitaire game called Nertz. He explored back roads in his Jeep Wagoneer, endlessly drove through the buffalo herd, and hiked in the park. One fateful day he dragged his two older children on a hike from the Badger Hole to the top of Mount Coolidge, where they raced to the top to beat Marlene, who drove up. A similar triumph ensued the lush summer day he led his kids on a hike to find the elusive Linnaea borealis, with its twin pink bell flowers, his youngest daughter's namesake.

At his prime, Dick played golf with a single digit handicap, and every week he joined his usual foursome at Arrowhead Country Club. He hunted pheasants, ducks, and grouse in rural South Dakota each fall. He attended First Presbyterian Church every Sunday and served as an elder there. His wisdom to his children and grandchildren, usually imparted over a glass of red wine, was: "If you don't have integrity, you have nothing."

A reluctant traveler, Dick visited Europe, Canada, Mexico, and most major regions of the United States, yet he always preferred to vacation in the Black Hills. Once, Dick was asked to take the U.S. secretary of the interior, Manuel Lujan, fly-fishing on Rapid Creek near Thunderhead Falls, and he was happy to oblige. Later when President H.W. Bush scheduled a visit to Mount Rushmore, Dick was asked to take the president fishing on Horsethief Lake. Dick declined, saying, "I'm not a lake fisherman." But he agreed to lend the president his fishing equipment.

He and Marlene celebrated their 69th wedding anniversary earlier this summer. In their daily lives, Marlene baked the chocolate chip cookies, wrapped the Christmas gifts, helped found the Habitat for Humanity chapter in Rapid City, and chatted – a lot. Dick, a resolute 1950s strong, silent type, retreated to the newspaper. Yet on rare occasions when life fell apart, he could be the one who stepped in with a lap to cry on and exactly the right words.

In the last year, he still loved to dip into a bowl of vanilla ice cream with Hershey's syrup on top or finish a puzzle with Marlene. Dick continued to pull on his forest green sport coat for church each Sunday morning right up until a month before he died.

Dick particularly lit up whenever he got to meet a new baby in the family, which came to include nine grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. Just last month after he was admitted to palliative care at Westhills, 33 family members gathered at Blue Bell again to celebrate his and Marlene's 90th birthdays. He felt sad to miss the main event, but the next day, a smaller family group took him to one last lunch at Arrowhead. There, his eyes shone as he watched his 2-year-old great granddaughter Eloise tuck into her salmon, and he joked about his grandson Gus borrowing his fishing rod without asking. As usual, he picked up the check.

He is survived by his wife, Marlene Tobias; his daughters, Jamie Tobias Neely (Cajer Neely), Jennifer Tobias (Tom McCracken), and Linnea Tobias (Jerry Murray), and his son, Greg Tobias (Chris Butler); nine grandchildren, Brooke Neely (Nicholas Dupuis), Megan Tobias Neely (Rob Krassowski), Will Turner (Rayna Ketchum), Lily Turner (Michael Cella), Gus Turner, Clem Turner, Simon Tobias, Aron Tobias, and Sophia Murray; five great-grandchildren, Evelyn Neely Dupuis, Hazel Neely Dupuis, Eloise Neely Krassowski, Helen Turner Cella, and Frederick Turner Cella; two brothers, Jim (Barbara Brittian) Tobias and Ed Tobias; his sister, Gladys Rea; and numerous nieces and nephews.

A memorial service will be at 11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 16, at First Presbyterian Church in Rapid City. Memorial gifts may be made to Crazy Horse Foundation, First Presbyterian Church, or Westhills Village Foundation.