Robert E. "Bob" Holland, 87, died at Sturgis Regional Hospital on Wednesday July 26, 2006.

Bob was born in Sioux Falls, June 17, 1919 to L.E. and Georgia Millman Holland. His parents had moved to Sioux Falls from a farm east of town. After the Stockmarket Crash in 1929, the family returned to the farm. He attended a one-room schoolhouse through the eighth grade. He helped his dad raise crops such as corn, oats, alfalfa, spelt and barley. One of his fondest memories was going with the family to the Orpheum Theater in Sioux Falls every Saturday night to watch the picture show and stopping for ice cream afterward.

Bob attended aircraft school to learn aviation mechanics in Kansas City, Mo. He worked for North American Aviation, Inc. at Englewood, Calif. and later at Kansas City. Bob returned to the farm in 1943 to help his dad.

He and LaVonne Casper were married at Eastside Lutheran Church in Sioux Falls on June 2, 1946. They recently celebrated their 60th anniversary.

The couple moved to Sturgis where Bob worked for the Firestone Store. He later worked for Anderson's Hardware. In 1955, Bob launched Bob's Refrigeration Service. He hired Chuck Fowlkes to help with the business in 1977. Bob sold the business to Chuck in 1981.

Bob was a loving and generous husband and father, and his greatest pleasures were spending time with family and friends, traveling and sight-seeing, enjoying the outdoors, and devoting himself to his hobbies. After retirement, he enjoyed woodworking, making china hutches and glider rockers, as well as other items that family and friends will long enjoy. He followed the Colorado Rockies and was an avid reader, especially of westerns. In his earlier years, he enjoyed bowling, hunting, and fishing. He recalls hunting pheasants in the fall in eastern South Dakota.

"We could look down the corn rows long about September and it just looked like the ground was moving, there were so many pheasants running ahead of us," he said in an interview with his daughter before his death.

Survivors include his wife, LaVonne, Sturgis; one daughter, Cathy Hafner and her husband, Mike, Camas, Wash.; one son, Jim Holland and his wife, Deb, Rapid City; four grandchildren, Chris Hafner, and his wife, Leigh, Seattle, Wash.; Amy Hafner, Fort Collins, Colo.; Aaron Holland and Matt Holland, Rapid City; one great-granddaughter, Sophia Hafner, Seattle, Wash.; and one nephew, Richard Pike and his wife, Diane, Summit.

He was preceded in death by his sisters, Genevieve and Mildred, his parents and four sons in infancy.

Burial at Bear Butte Cemetery.

Arrangements by Kinkade Funeral Chapel.