Funeral services for Earl Waterland, 92, Marcus, will be 11:30 a.m. Friday, March 24, 2006, at the First Presbyterian Church in Sturgis with Pastor Paul Smith officiating. Burial will be 2:30 p.m. Friday at the White Owl Cemetery. Visitation will be 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursday at the Kinkade Funeral Chapel in Sturgis.

Earl Harold Waterland was born on March 23, 1913, on a homestead 15 miles northeast of Ismay, Montana, to John and Ellen (Hartse) Waterland. He grew up at Carlyle, Montana, where he received his elementary education and attended three years of high school. In 1930, he moved with his family to Hill City, SD, and graduated from high school there in 1931. After graduation, he worked at several jobs in the Hills area, including logging for the Warren Lamb Company and Bill Miller. He also worked at Palmer Gulch Lodge for Troy and Ellen Parker. While working at Palmer Gulch, he met and married Phyllis G. Kilness on August 7, 1939. In 1940, they moved to Los Angeles, California, where Earl worked for Lockheed Air Craft Company from 1940 to 1944. They moved back to South Dakota and made their home on the ranch at Marcus in 1945, where he resided until the time of his death on Saturday, March 18, 2006.

Earl was active in his community, a board member of Golden West Telephone Cooperative from 1956 to 1989, president of that board from 1965 to 1986. He also served on the National Telephone Cooperative Association.

Survivors include two sons, Harold and his wife, Vicky, Waterland of Howes, SD, Allen Waterland of Marcus, SD; one daughter and her husband, Norma and Marvin Williams of Owanka, SD; twelve grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.

His parents, wife, one daughter, nine brothers, two sisters, one infant brother and one daughter-in-law preceded him in death.

A memorial has been established to the Enning Ambulance Service.