After a three-year battle with cancer during which his wife, Doris, was a daily source of care, comfort, love, and support, and with his sons, Tony and Matt, also beside him, Steve Bushard died on August 8, 2023. The family will host a celebration of life from 1:00 PM-4:00 PM on October 14, 2023 at the Hilton Garden Inn, 201 E. 8^th St., Sioux Falls, SD.

The oldest son of Oster “Pat” Bushard and Marie (Zitzmann) Bushard, Steven Patrick Bushard was born on September 2, 1934 in New Ulm, MN. Steve grew up on the Bushard family farm near Fairfax, MN and graduated from Fairfax High School in 1952. Steve enlisted in the Air Force later that year and served as a clerk/typist stationed in Munich, Germany from 1953-1956 during the Korean Conflict. While in Germany, Steve traveled to Greece, Italy, and Northern Africa, and enjoyed playing catcher on the Air Force softball team. After receiving an Honorable Discharge, Steve went back to the family farm, took classes at the Minnesota School of Business, and worked as a salesman in the men’s department at JCPenney in Mankato, MN. There he began to develop a profound ability to engage in conversation with almost anyone he met. Eventually he moved to Marshall, MN where he sold life, health, and disability insurance, an occupation in which Steve thrived for almost 40 years. During one of several frequent weekend ventures to Sioux Falls, Steve met the love of his life, Doris (Osvog) Bushard at Harry’s Happy Hour (now Minerva’s) in April 1969. In January 1970, Steve moved to Sioux Falls and married Doris on April 4, 1970 at First Lutheran Church in Sioux Falls.

For more than fifty years, Steve and Doris called Sioux Falls home. Steve established a home office and armed with a thermos of coffee, a cheese sandwich, and an apple, spent many days on the road in SE South Dakota and SW Minnesota visiting clients. Steve was also an avid golfer, first at Central Valley GC in Hartford, SD and later River Ridge GC in Garretson, SD. Saturdays and weekly “men’s league” were sacred days in the Bushard household. Steve engaged in a lifelong obsession with perfecting his game, highlighted by a hole in one at Bear Creek GC in Chandler, AZ in 2012 at age 77. Steve also enjoyed the sport of running and entered several 10K races and marathons, earning a personal best at Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, MN in 1981. Many years later, Steve won his age group at the 2015 Lincoln National Guard Half Marathon at age 80. Steve took an active role in his sons’ activities and became heavily involved in youth sports in Sioux Falls. In addition to helping coach his sons’ youth basketball teams, Steve also spent innumerable hours coaching their youth fastpitch softball teams. Steve coached teams that competed in national championship games in 1991, 1993, and 1995 and tutored his sons to become national champion pitchers in 1990 and 1991. He was still catching them near their home at Cherry Rock Park well into his 60s. In 1993 the Sioux Falls Junior Fastpitch Association awarded Steve the Bayard Philips Memorial Coach of the Year Award.

After retiring from the insurance business in 1999, Steve enjoyed more time for golfing, taking daily six-mile walks, and spending time with his family. Steve loved his family first and foremost and with Doris put thousands of miles on their minivan visiting Lake Okoboji, IA, their children and grandchildren in Lincoln, NE and Gilbert, AZ, and sharing vacations with them in the Black Hills, Grand and Bryce Canyons, and San Diego, CA. Steve loved spending time with his grandchildren and whether it was baseball, soccer, football, band, or choir, he never missed an opportunity to cheer them on. In 2007 Steve and Doris became “snowbirds” and resided in Gilbert, AZ to be near Matt and his family. Their all-night drives from Sioux Falls to Gilbert are legendary to this day.

Thankful to have journeyed beside him are his wife of 53 years, Doris; his sons and daughters-in-law, Anthony and Erica (Lincoln, NE), Matthew and Maria (Chandler, AZ); grandchildren Zachary, Nicholas, Daniel (Lincoln) and Anthony, Joseph, and Vincent (Chandler); siblings Dave (Marshall, MN), Tom (Green Valley, AZ), Mary (Gaithersburg, MD), and Paul (The Villages, FL), as well as numerous nieces and nephews. Steve was preceded in death by his father, Pat, and his mother, Marie. In lieu of flowers, memorials or donations can be made to the American Cancer Society or Hospice of the Valley.

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