Russell A. Steinback, 61, died Friday, February 22, 2019 at the Rapid City Regional Health Home Plus Hospice House.

Russell Arthur Steinback (Russ) was born December 27, 1957 in Deadwood South Dakota. His parents were E. Theodore and E. Blanche Steinback of Lead South Dakota.

Russell was born a special needs child with Down syndrome. During his very young formative years, his mother Blanche took very special care and extra effort to make sure that Russell was given all of the opportunities available to develop his abilities to the fullest His mother enrolled him in a special education class in Spearfish, South Dakota. The class was taught by a special education teacher by the name of Mrs. Beverly Carr. Beverly was a victim of polio at a very early age and was wheelchair- bound all of her life. In addition to Russell, Beverly had quite a number of other handicapped children from the Northern Hills. One of those children that Blanche became very close to was Margaret Phillips and her son Lester from Alzada, Montana. As did Blanche, Margaret would bring Lester to Spearfish every day from their ranch in Alzada. Blanche drove from Lead to Spearfish five days a week for about 9 years to take Russell to Mrs.Carr's special education class.

When Russell became advanced enough to move on from Mrs. Carr's class, he started at the Black Hills Workshop in Rapid City. His father Ted was still working in Lead for the Homestake Mining Company.Ted and Blanche would bring Russell to Rapid City every Sunday afternoon. Russell would stay a week at a time with Bob Clossman and his wife who operated a dormitory housing facility on their farm for handicapped individuals north of Jenner Equipment on Deadwood Avenue in Rapid City. Bob had a small school bus that he used to take the clients to the Black Hills Workshop on Range Road every day. In the afternoon Bob would go get the clients and take them back home where they were housed in dormitories. Mrs.Clossman cooked and fed all of the client's meals. Ted and Blanche would come to Rapid City every Friday evening to take Russell back home to Lead for the weekend.

In about 1976 when Ted retired from Homestake Mining Company, Ted and Blanche decided to move to Rapid City, to be in a location where Russell could live at home with them and attend the Black Hills Workshop. He continued to live at home after Blanche passed away from Parkinson's Disease and lived with his dad Ted until Ted passed away in July 2010.

During this time period Black Hills Workshop took on the task of providing government assisted housing. The housing was for clients that attended the workshop who did not have parents or who did not live in Rapid City. When Russell's dad Ted passed away, Russell had been on a waiting list for workshop housing for a number of years. At the time of Ted's death that option was activated and Russell initially moved into housing at the Hampton Housing Unit in Robbinsdale. He was later permanently moved into the Edwards "D" Housing Unit south of Regional Hospital and lived there for quite a number of years. He stayed there until he needed Complete Care. When Russell passed away, he was living at the Indiana Housing Unit on Indiana Street in Robbinsdale.

Russell was a client at Black Hills Works for over 50 years. During those years Russell worked in many areas of the workshop including the wood working area where they made bridging material and survey stakes, the recycling area where they recycled aluminum steel and glass material, the bulk bag stenciling area where they stenciled bulk bags for a company here in Rapid City that transported bulk materials, and also in hospital production where they made welcome kits for patients at Regional Hospital.

Russell was a favorite of all employees at Black Hills Works and was known by everyone. His mother Blanche and father. Ted always made sure that he was dressed very nicely. He took after his father; Ted always wore a dress shirt, tie and sports jacket to work. Ted continued to do that even after he retired. Russell always likes to look nice like his father.

Russell was always a very happy-go-lucky individual and loved to be a socialite in-group activities. His parents always included him in all of their activities. Russell was the kind of a person that if you had a special characterization that he could identify you with, he had a memory that he would never forget who you were. There were many people that Russell identified with in this manner, including members of his own family. One of Russell's daily tasks at Black Hills Works was to put up the American flag in front of the Workshop Administration Building .He would put it up in the morning and then take it down in the afternoon. For a long time he was very dedicated to this activity and seemed to realize it had real meaning to our country and its people.

One of Russell's favorite pastimes was writing on a yellow legal pad in his own way of writing cursive. He would spend hours on end on this activity. He always liked to collect brochures and any kind of forms that had lines on them.  He would take forms that he had collected and fill out all the lines on then. He liked to collect all the ads in the newspaper and would cut out his favorite items. Many of them were pretty girls that he liked. He would carry them in his wallet to show people that he knew. He was also a great collector of all kinds of pens. He would collect pens from anywhere he could get his hands on them and not get caught. When his dad passed away his brother found more than 400 pens in the house, Most had been collected from Black Hills Works, But he would also collect them from other businesses that he and Ted visited. Russell carried a briefcase daily to and from the workshop to keep his very important papers in, He did this in an order that he saw fit. He often received a new briefcase at Christmas time for a present. His watch was also a very important item to him. He seemed to have a relevance of time to the day and his activities.

Russell became interested in watercolor painting at the workshop in the Suzie Kappa Arts Center. He carried his painting interest to his home activities when he lived at the Edwards "D" housing unit south of Regional Hospital. His painting interests were inspired by Brad Winter who was in charge of the Suzie Kappa Arts Center on Range Road. Russell's brother Paul would buy watercolor paints and paint boards and brushes. There was a talented free hand artist that worked at Edwards, she was very talented at freehand art. She would take black markers and draw cartoon characters on the paint boards for Russ to paint; Russ would work in his apartment during the evening painting those cartoon characters. It got to the point where Russell would have a completed picture on Friday night when his brother and wife would pick him up to take him out to dinner. Russell became very adept in painting the charters. Brad Winter became one of Russell's favorite people at the workshop. One of Russell's favorite tasks during the day was to go see Brad in the Susie Kappa Art Center even if he wasn't there to paint. Russell was also an avid bowler. He looked forward to Thursday weekly bowling at Meadowood Bowling with other clients.

Over the years Russell had become almost an icon for Black Hills Works. During the last few years Black Hills Works has had several hiring campaigns for employment and several years ago people at Black Hills Works came to Russell's brother, Paul and asked if a special picture of Russell showing him with his arm stretched out could be used in an advertising campaign for employment at Black Hills Works. The picture was actually taken at a Christmas Ball at Black Hills Works. Russ is showing his arm extended out to hold a girl that he would be dancing with. The picture was perfect for the hiring campaign. Permission was given for the workshop to use the picture in the advertising campaign and was used on billboards. They were on East Omaha St., Campbell St, W. Main St. and W. Chicago St. There were also magnetic signs used on Rapid City Dial-a-Ride Busses, City Transit Busses and all of Black Hills Works Transportation Buses. When Paul would show Russ those signs he would become just elated.

The assets and resources that Black Hills Works has brought to the Black Hills community are over whelming. The support from Ellsworth Air Force Base, Offitt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska and many other entities and businesses in the Black Hills area are indescribable. The addition of Bake Works, the Suzie Cappa Art Center in downtown Rapid City, the cafeteria operation at Black Hills Energy and many other local businesses that hire Black Hills Works Clients demonstrates the expanded opportunities for our community to grow by embracing and celebrating people with special needs.

The people at Black Hills Works are people that have been given a God-given talent of caring and compassion. Through all of the years that Russ has attended Black Hills Workshop and Black Hills Works, the employees that have interacted with Russell and supported the Steinback family, To Ted, Blanche, Paul and other family members have been nothing short of amazing. We as a community in Rapid City are one of the lucky communities in the nation to have such an organization as Black Hills Works and all of the dedicated employees that serve over some 600 clients.

Russell's mother Blanche and father Ted preceded Russell in death. Survivors include his sister Anita and her John Weikel of Charleston, South Carolina and his brother Paul and his wife Bonnie Steinback of Rapid City, South Dakota. Children of Anita and John Weikel, are Kent and Heather Weikel, Susan and Paul Arrington, and Karen Weikel of Charleston, SC. Children of Paul and Bonnie Steinback, Heather Steinback, Ryan and Nickie Steinback, of Rapid City, SD and Wade and Katie Steinback of Columbus, MS, and also numerous grand nieces and nephews.

Visitation will be from 9:00 am to 10:00 am and services will be at 10:00 am at Canyon Lake United Methodist Church in Rapid City on Saturday, March 2, 2019.

Burial will be in the Mountain View Cemetery with his mother and father Blanche and Ted.

Memorials may be sent to Black Hills Works and Hospice House of the Black Hills in memory of Russell Steinback.