Leroy D. Schecher

1931 - 2021

Leroy D. Schecher

RAPID CITY | Leroy D. Schecher was born May 26, 1931 to William and Eleonora (Otterdahl) Schecher on their family farm near Bison, SD. He passed away on March 27, 2021 after a battle with lung cancer.

He attended Lone Tree Grade School, located a mile south of their farm, and graduated from Bison High School on May 26, 1949, his 18th birthday. He then attended two years of college at SDSU.

He married Hazel Lee on Jan. 6, 1952 in Volga, SD, and they moved back to the farm. In August of that year he described a "100 year" hailstorm that destroyed their first crop. Their son Larry was born Sept. 15, 1952 and a week later he began employment at Grand Electric Cooperative. After wearing many hats in different positions over the years, he became the General Manager of Grand Electric Co-op and the West River Cooperative Telephone Co. in 1961, a position he held until his "first" retirement on Jan. 31, 1984. Their daughter, Janet, was born Feb. 8, 1965.

During his tenure as General Manager of Grand Electric and West River Telephone, it was important to promote laws and participate in negotiations that benefited the Rural Electric Association on a state and national level. This in turn led to his service on many state and national boards and associations to provide input on legislation that directly impacted rural America. All of this required a lot of travel, so he decided to learn to fly to save travel time, earning a commercial pilots license and an instrument rating, and logging some 4,200 hours of flight time. His travels for business, pleasure, and vacations eventually took him to all 50 states.

He married Carol Baymiller on May 31, 1985 and they moved to Montevideo, MN, in March 1986, where Leroy was the General Manager of the Minnesota Valley Cooperative Light and Power Association for 10 years until his "second" retirement in January 1996.

During his time as manager he was an original incorporator for three new cooperatives - Basin Electric Power Cooperative, Bismark, ND (he was the last remaining member of the 69 original incorporators), the North Central Data Cooperative in Mandan, ND (the first to provide data processing services for rural electric and telephone cooperatives), and the Cooperative Response Center in Austin, MN that provides after hours answering services for rural electric cooperatives for outages, life alert, and other services. It was his honor to serve as President. In 2007, he was inducted into the South Dakota Cooperative Hall of Fame.

After his retirement from Minnesota Valley in 1996, Leroy and Carol moved to Rapid City in 1997, where they have continued to reside to the present day. They have enjoyed traveling and RVing throughout their retirement years. Leroy also had a long list of hobbies including woodworking, volunteering at the Boys Club and the Morning Optimist Club, golfing, fishing (frequently), crossword puzzles, Sudoku, and playing cribbage with his friends and family.

The farm was always an important part of Leroy's life, helping his dad during spring planting and the fall harvest. Over the years he has always enjoyed going back to lend a hand to his son and grandson.

Leroy loved his family very much and his friends were very important to him. Those left behind to mourn his passing are his wife, Carol Schecher; son, Larry (Joan) Schecher, Bison, SD; daughter, Janet Schecher, Rapid City; granddaughter, Kelsey Schecher, Sioux Falls; grandson, Bradley (Brooke) Schecher, Bison, SD; great-grandchildren, Kashton & Hazyn Schecher; stepsons: Doug Baymiller, Sioux Falls; Kris (Deb), Hutchinson KS; Kyle (Duranda) Baymiller, Newton, KS; Jon (Peggy) Baymiller, Aurora, OH; Eric (Karen) Baymiller, Carmel, CA; nine step-grandchildren; six step-great-grandchildren; and a host of friends. He was preceded in death by his parents; sister, Dallas Preszler; and infant daughter, Mary Diane (1955).

Services will be at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, April 3, at Canyon Lake United Methodist Church. Burial will be at Mountain View Cemetery following the service.

His online guestbook is available to sign at www.osheimschmidt.com where a recording of the service will also be posted on his page.