Rev. Dennis Tippett

The Rev. Dennis Tippett of Rapid City, former rector of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Mitchell, SD, died Aug. 7, 2012 at the Rapid City Regional Hospital after a brief but complicated illness. He was 80. He was born on June 12, 1932 in Ortonville, Mn., the son of Thomas and Frances (Obitz) Tippett and grew up in Big Stone City, SD and on his grandparents ranch outside of Big Stone. Early in his life, he discovered that a ball fit his hand very well. He played football, basketball, and baseball, lettering in all. He road bulls in high school rodeo and much preferred riding his horses on the ranch to walking. He graduated from Big Stone High School in 1950. He went to Northern State in Aberdeen but by his own admission, he much preferred the football program under Clark Swisher to the classroom. After his sophomore football season, he enlisted in the United States Marines. He was a Marine commando and a demolitions expert. He was honorably discharged on March 19, 1955. With the GI bill, Dennis received his bachelor’s degree from Augustana College in Sioux Falls in 1958. It was there that he met Phyllis Gilbert. They married in 1958 just before Mr. Tippett started divinity school at Berkeley College of Yale University in New Haven, Conn. He received his masters in divinity degree in 1961. He was ordained as a deacon at Christ Church in Milbank, SD on July 2, 1961. He was assigned by the bishop as the first vicar of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Rapid City, just a new mission church, and he began his 30 years in the church. He was ordained as a priest on Jan. 21, 1962 at St. Andrew’s and served that growing congregation until 1966 when he, his wife and two daughters moved to Mitchell where Mr. Tippett served as rector of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church until 1973. It was in Mitchell that the Tippetts adopted two sons. In the worker/priest program, Mr. Tippett also was the manager of Grigg’s Sporting and Men’s Apparel in Mitchell. Father T, as he was known, served as the youth director for the Diocese of South Dakota from 1961-73 until the family moved to Bismarck, ND, where he was the rector of St. George’s Episcopal Church, a position he held until 1990. He and his first wife were divorced in 1990. Mr. Tippett served as interim minister at St. Peter’s in Williston, ND and St. Michael’s and All Angels in Cartwright in 1990-91. He moved to Arizona and was a field representative/auditor for Summit Audit and Survey. It was there he met his wife, Janet, then the assistant publisher at the Daily News-Sun in Sun City. Dennis and Jan were married in July 1992 in Owatonna, Mn. They moved to Pennsylvania in August 1992 where Jan was first the general manager and then the publisher of The Daily Item in Sunbury. Dennis worked as a field auditor for Vallance & Associates and then Equifax until he retired in 1995 to become what he described as the “publisher’s wife ” and worked on his golf game, a sport he took up after the Marine Corps, prayed and studied. Jan retired early and the couple moved to Rapid City in 2007, arriving just in time to celebrate St. Andrew’s 50th anniversary. Mr. Tippett was the past president of the North Dakota Conference of Churches and the standing committee of the Diocese of North Dakota. He was a five-term deputy to the General Convention of the National Episcopal Church, was a cantress at Christ Church College, Canterbury, Kent, England, had a fellowship in gerontology at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, was a 32nd Degree Mason, and belonged to numerous service clubs. He is survived by his wife, Janet; his daughter and son-in-law, Elizabeth and Bob Ketchum, Custer, his daughter and son-in-law, Katherine and Ray Barchenger of Mandan, ND, his son and daughter-in-law, Ron and Cheryl Tippett of Bismarck, ND , and his son, Kerry of Dallas, Texas; seven grandchildren, Terra (Brent) Swisher, Crystal M. England, Jessie Ketchum, Austin Barchenger, Mindy Barchenger, Summer Tippett and Elizabeth Tippett; three and two-thirds great-grandchildren; his sister and brother-in-law, Colleen and Gayle Hedge of Ortonville; his brother-in-law, Ted J. Mittelstadt of Owatonna, Mn., one nephew, Alan (Kim) Knippen of Big Stone, several cousins, two aunts-in-law, many cousins-in-law, his first wife, Phyllis Gies, and dear friends everywhere. The funeral service (rite one) will be at 11 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 11 at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 910 Soo San Dr. with the Rev. Kathy Monson Lutes officiating, and deacons, the Rev. Virginia Bird and the Rev. Marty Garwood officiating. Visitation with the family will start at 10 a.m. and will continue over the lunch to follow the service at the church. Burial of his cremains will be later at Black Hills National Cemetery. Memorials to St. Andrew’s Church or the donor’s choice is the family’s preference.