George Ketterling

George Ketterling, age 93 of Spearfish, died Friday March 7, 2025 at his home.

The funeral service will be held 2pm Wednesday, March 12, 2025 at the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Rapid City.  Visitation will be held 3 to 7pm Tuesday at Leverington Funeral Home of the Northern Hills in Belle Fourche, and one hour prior to the service.  Interment will be held 11:30am Thursday at Greenhill Cemetery in Lemmon. 

George Wesley Ketterling was born November 7, 1931 in Lemmon, South Dakota. He was the son of Ferdinand and Amelia (Kolb) Ketterling. George grew up on the Grand River, near Lemmon. He graduated from Lemmon High School in 1949. George served in the U.S. Air Force from 1952 to 1956. He attended the San Bernardino Valley College in California and following his service in the military he attended college at the SD School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City, earning his B.S. Degree in Electrical Engineering in 1960. Following, he moved to Seattle Washington where he began a 32-year work career as an Electrical Engineer for the Boeing Company. In 1967 he received his Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from Seattle University. George retired in 1992 and moved to Spearfish shortly after.

George loved the outdoors and he really enjoyed his many boating and fishing experiences in the ocean while living in Seattle. He took fishing trips to Alaska, enjoyed gardening, and hunting in his later years. He also enjoyed gold panning in the Black Hills and even had a claim near Iron Creek. He was a wood-worker, a member of an investors group, and he had a great talent investing in the stock market. For many years he served on the Spearfish Veterans Honor Guard.

George is survived by his niece, Charlene Crawford of Missoula MT; grand nieces and nephews, Lee Crawford, Joseph (Jolynn) Crawford, (and their children: Maleah, Jaxon, and Cooper), and Margaret Crawford. He was preceded in death by his parents; sister, Margaret (and her husband William) Summers; brother, Walter Kruesman; and nephew, Charles Summers.