Donald "Don" G. Becker

Donald Becker, 81, of Aberdeen, SD, passed away after a valiant three-year battle with lung disease on Thursday, July 31, 2025, at Strand-Kjorsvig

Community Rest Home in Roslyn, SD.

A Celebration of Life will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 28, at The Center, aka The Waffle Cone, in downtown Aberdeen. Memorials may be sent to Aberdeen Area Humane Society in lieu of flowers.

Schriver’s Memorial Mortuary and Crematory, 414 5th Avenue NW, Aberdeen, is in charge of arrangements. Family and friends may sign the online guestbook at www.schriversmemorial.com.

Don Becker grew up on the South Dakota prairie and never strayed very far from that prairie home. His ties to the land were deep. That love of nature and the natural world was reflected in his artwork and his photography, his career as a screen printer, his backyard gardening, and the few rustic places he chose to travel to and spend his leisure time.

Don was born March 22, 1944, in Rapid City, SD, to Raymond and Margaret (Heil) Becker. The hospital was a three-hour drive from the Becker home in Eagle Butte, a small town deeply rooted in the history of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and named after a prominent geological feature where ceremonial eagles were historically trapped. Early on, Don developed friendships with many Native Americans.

The youngest of eight children, Don spent much of his childhood and adolescence roaming the countryside, often exploring the rugged prairie landscape alone on horseback. The only house rule was to come home for meals and “watch out for rattlesnakes.” These early outings must have sparked his artistic sense. Throughout his life, images of nature and wildlife and American Indian culture would appear and reappear in his paintings and photography. With pride, he sent his “artworks,” his children, out into the world to be displayed by friends and family.

Don also had aunts, uncles, and cousins in Rapid City, so he spent time there as he was growing up, often fishing with an uncle. He graduated from Eagle Butte High School in 1962. After serving in the Army in the Vietnam War era of the late 1960s, he returned to school, graduating in 1972 from Northern State College, now Northern State University, in Aberdeen. On June 22, 1974, he married Carol Gruba, who had grown up on a farm near Webster, S.D., with four siblings. Together, they made their home in Aberdeen.

Don’s screen-printing career included stints as co-owner of Trout Bros. Screen Printing and working for Geffdog Design and Apparel, both in Aberdeen. When he and Carol found time to vacation, one of their favorite destinations was

Spearfish Canyon, a six-hour drive from home. After trying to camp in a tent and getting rained out, they later began to rent a cabin. They also enjoyed canoeing on the James River. They traveled to Wyoming to visit Devil’s Tower a few times and went to Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Tetons in the fall of 1982. Other than a trip to Portland and Seattle in September of 2001 for a niece’s wedding, they stayed pretty close to home, spending holidays with family, including Don’s brother Darold and wife, Carrie, and their seven kids, and Don’s parents, in Eagle Butte, and with Carol’s family at the farm near Webster. Even rarer were trips to visit family and friends in Lincoln, Neb., and rural Minnesota.

Back home in Aberdeen, Don and Carol also made a home for numerous pet cats, including, most recently, Chewbacca, or “Chewy.” On and off from 1994 until 2011, Don participated in a men’s-only Saturday morning coffee group that engaged in lively conversation, usually expressing their heartfelt liberal politics.

He is survived by his wife of 51 years, Carol; sisters Mary Lou Scherer, Marce McGuire, Virginia Storey, and Donna Bowker; sisters-in-law Suzanne Gruba and Mary Jane Gruba; brothers-in-law Dave Gruba and Robert Gruba; some 38 nieces and nephews; and his dear friend Paul Thompson.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Ray and Margaret Becker; his brother Darold Becker; and sisters Peg Simmers and Charlotte Hartel.