William F. “Bud” Dempsey, 86, of Omaha, Nebraska, and formerly of Brookings, died Thursday, March 29, 2018
Funeral services are at 10:30 a.m. Monday at St. Thomas More Catholic Parish. Lunch will be served at the McKnight Community Hall following the committal, with full military honors, at the Fairview Cemetery in White. Visitation is Sunday from 5 to 7 p.m. with a liturgical wake service and Rosary at 7 p.m. at the Eidsness Funeral Home, Brookings.
William, known to friends as Bill and to family as Bud, was born on a farm near Athboy, Corson County, on Jan. 14, 1932, to his parents Elsie (Melicher) and Harry Dempsey. In 1939, Bill moved with his family to a farm northeast of White. Bill attended country school near White and graduated from White High School in 1950.
Bill joined the Air Force in 1951, and served for three years during the Korean War. He deployed to Korea as a radio operator serving with the 4901 Support Wing assigned to an Air Rescue Squadron.
For his service, Bill was honorably discharged and awarded the Korean Service Medal, United Nations Service Medal and the National Defense Service Medal.
Bill married his high school sweetheart Ellen (Willmott) Dempsey in 1954. The couple settled on the family farm north of White following Bill’s discharge. They remained on the farm for over 30 years raising cattle, hogs and row crops. Bill won many farming and conservation awards and was well known in the area as a Master Purebred Hampshire Pork Producer.
In 1972, Bill became very active promoting rural water system development. He was a project coordinator for a local engineering firm then served as the Benefits Manager for the South Dakota Association of Rural Water Systems until his full retirement in 2002.
Bill is the past president of the Brookings Duel Rural Water System, the State Association of Rural Water Systems and South Dakota’s Representative on the National Rural Water Association Board of Directors. He is a past president of the East Dakota Water Development District Board of Directors and served as a South Dakota state conservation commissioner. He was a member of the Catholic Church of St Thomas More, the Knights of Columbus, and the American Legion (White Post 88).
Bill received numerous awards for his professional service including the Carroll Anderson Memorial Award for Voluntary Contribution to the Development of Rural Water in South Dakota (1978) and the National Rural Water Association “Founding Father” Plaque (1992). Bill moved from the Brookings area to Omaha in 2009 to live with his daughter Beth and her family.
Survivors include three children, Steven (Shelley) Dempsey of Brookings, Beth (Mark) Wagner of Omaha, and Robert Dempsey of Oakland, California; 11 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
He was preceded in death by his wife Ellen (2001), daughter Sue, and three sisters, Irene (Horton) Steinmeyer, Rosemary (Joe) Wethington and Maxine (Sister M. Anthony, P.V.M.) and one grandchild Therese Wagner.
