Dwight Roger Buntrock

Dwight Roger Buntrock, a man who could make a hospital ward feel like a party, passed away peacefully on February 23, 2026, at his home in Mesa, Arizona. He was 82 years old - and 6 minutes older than his twin brother Dwain, a fact Dwight never once let Dwain forget.

Born on the family homestead in rural Columbia, South Dakota on a summer morning in 1943, Dwight arrived into a world that had no idea what was coming. He was the son of August and Marietta Buntrock, a brother among seven children, and a force of nature from the very beginning.

Dwight and Dwain were not just brothers - they were a phenomenon. As standout athletes at Columbia High School, the Buntrock Twins became the kind of basketball players that South Dakota small towns talk about decades later. They lit up gymnasiums across the region as stars of the Columbia Comets, and on November 20, 1959 - the very night their father August died tragically - the twins were playing in the Columbia High School Auditorium. That Dwight and Dwain found the strength to go on from that night, to take over the family farm with their Mother and siblings at just 16 years of age, and build something lasting from the ashes of grief, tells you everything you need to know about the kind of man Dwight Buntrock was.

Farming was never just a job for Dwight - it was his identity, his inheritance, and his deepest pride. He and Dwain carried forward the legacy of their Grandparent's homestead, keeping the land in the family across generations in an era when many family farms vanished. That the Buntrock Homestead endures today is a monument to the Twins' tenacity, their bond, and their love for the land. Dwight's preferred method of farm management - and his happiest place - was mixing himself a drink and taking a crop tour. He was an agrarian philosopher in the truest sense: surveying his fields, contemplating the beauty and mysteries of the land.

It was a near-fatal hunting accident near Frederick, South Dakota in the fall of 1966 that would change the entire trajectory of Dwight's life, in the most beautiful way. Shot during a goose hunt in rural Brown County, Dwight found himself a patient at Mayo Clinic, where a beautiful young nursing student named Carolyn Marie Ross was assigned to his care after her previous patient was discharged. Dwight is fond of saying he met the love of his life in bed. Carolyn, to her considerable credit, married him anyway.

They wed on June 14, 1969 at Saint Patrick Catholic Parish in Hudson, Wisconsin, and what followed was 52 years of a love story written on the South Dakota soil. Carolyn was everything Dwight needed and everything he didn't know to ask for: brilliant, warm, wickedly witty, and possessed of a calming grace that perfectly complemented Dwight's gift for charming a room. Together they built a beautiful life rooted in love, laughter, faith, and family that neither of them could have built alone.

Dwight served his community with quiet dedication, giving his time and judgment to the Board of the Northern Rural Electric Cooperative and the Brown County ASCS office. He was a lifelong and faithful member of St. John's Lutheran Church in Columbia where he served as an elder, a man who lived his faith as much as he spoke it.

But let us not overlook what many who loved Dwight will remember most: he was an icon and the life of the party. He was a storyteller of the highest order, a joke-teller without peer, and the most interesting person at any gathering. His illness and extended hospitalization - including his time at Mayo Clinic in Phoenix these past weeks - did absolutely nothing to dim that light. The nurses loved him. The doctors loved him. The orderlies who showered him loved him, even after he looked one of them square in the eye and asked, during said shower, in that deep, rich voice of his, whether his backside was clean. It is a safe bet that a particular orderly is still telling that story.

And that voice. If you told Dwight something - anything - there was a good chance you'd get back a long, slow, deeply skeptical: "Reaaalllly?" Two syllables, three if he really meant it. Those who loved him will hear it for the rest of their lives.

Dwight was preceded in death by the love of his life, his wife Carolyn Marie Buntrock; his parents August and Marietta Buntrock; his sister Linda Gall; his sister Arla Fuller; and his brother Grant Buntrock. He is now reunited with all of them, and one can only imagine the stories being swapped.

He is lovingly and gratefully survived by his children Ross Buntrock (Shane Bateman), Andrew Buntrock (Renan Talhadas), and Heidi Buntrock (Michael Bandt); his grandchildren Isabelle Aniece and August Michael; his twin brother and lifelong partner in everything, Dwain Buntrock; and his siblings Marlous Ambrose (David) and Janet Sherman (Patrick), his brother-in-law, Lyle Gall, as well as a wide circle of nieces, nephews, cousins and friends who are better people for having known him.

Services are pending with Hansen Desert Hills Mortuary in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Spitzer-Miller Funeral Home in Aberdeen, SD. Plans for a prayer service and funeral service at St. John's Lutheran Church in Columbia, SD with interrment at the St. John's Cemetery are being made and details will be announced as they are confirmed.

"Reaaalllly?"

Rest easy, Dad. You've earned it.