Delbert Minske, age 77, of Huron passed away June 11, 2020.

Private family graveside service was held on Saturday, August 8th at Riverside Cemetery.

Delbert Allan Minske was born January 24, 1943, on a farm near Hitchcock.  His parents were Ruben and Marie Minske.  Delbert was the youngest of four brothers and a sister, Lorine, Dewey, Orville, and Eldon all deceased.  He attended school in Hitchcock and Huron. Delbert graduated from Huron High School in 1961.  Delbert was a member of the National Guard for years.

Delbert meet and married Ruth Ann Brown on December 19, 1964.  They had two daughters, Carrie Ann, born November 18, 1969, and Nicole Marie, born March 18, 1972.

He started employment with the US Department of Interior, Bureau of Reclamation on April 2, 1962, as a Surveying Aid working out of the Missouri-Oahe Projects Office, surveying on High voltage transmission lines and sub stations and on irrigation canal's and storage reservoirs.

He then was with the Conservation Service as an Engineering Aid with the River Basin Survey Staff.  He gathered information for floodwater and irrigation and grade stabilization structures channel improvement on the James River, Big Sioux River, and the Little Sioux River Basins.

On June 19, 1966, Delbert was promoted to a Civil Engineering Technician with the River Basin Staff and the Watershed Planning Staff, working on several different projects including Conservation Needs Inventory program and watershed projects.

On June 29, 1969, Delbert transferred to the Engineering Design Section of the Soil Conservation Service where he worked with the State Design Engineer on designing and drawing detailed construction plans for miscellanies projects including floodwater and grade Stabilization control structures, Diversions, Irrigation projects, channel drainage, rural water supply systems and agricultural waste disposal systems.  Delbert also prepared standard plans for commonly used field engineering components such as stockwater tanks, principal inlet structures for small dams.  He was also involved in writing computer programs for channel hydraulic analyses and programs to compute quantities of materials such as earthwork, concrete, and reinforcing steel on the first small hand held calculators the agency purchased for the Engineering Section.  Delbert also worked with the first large computer system that was installed in the State Office for performing such tasks as running flood routing designs thru reservoirs and emergency spillways for designing structures.  Delbert introduced the State Office to its first IBM PC computer that was given to Soil Conservation Service by the National Office for their use.  It consisted of a word processor and a spreadsheet program called Lotus 123 along with a database program.

On February 14, 1985, Delbert transferred to a new section being created and headed up what was to be called Information Resources Management section as a computer systems analyst. He worked directly under the Deputy State Conservation as project leader providing IRM expertise in establishing hardware and software requirements, IRM Security and worked with the state training committee to develop a training plan to meet SCS data and information processing objectives.  While project leader, Delbert provided technical guidance in developing the long range IRM plans relating to the management, security, and operation of data and processing equipment including remote batch terminals, interactive terminals and word processing systems. He worked with the National Office in installing the first computer systems across the State in each Field Office. Delbert worked with the contractor in the initialization and setup of the first computers used in the Field and State Office's that was connected to each other using a dialup modem and had multiple workstations attached to it. The IRM section grew to include a computer operator, Soils Manual Script operator and an IRM Coordinator.

Most recently, Delbert along with the other members of the Information Technology section, was transferred to a new division under the Department of Agriculture called OCIO. Delbert had worked in the IRM/ITS section for the past 20 years as a computer systems analyst and computer specialist on a variety of computer systems from an IBM-PC, to the present day systems of a server and workstation connected to each other over a Local Area Network which is part of a Wide Area Network for all of Natural Resources Conservation Service, Farm Service and Rural Development Agencies.

On February 3, 2005, Delbert decided to enjoy his life and entered the age of retirement. He enjoyed spent doing wood working, traveling and getting together for coffee every day with friends. Delbert was actively involved in the lives and accomplishments of his children and grandchildren. Ruth and Delbert went on many cruises and motor coach tours, as well spending time traveling to many sites of the country. He always found time to attend their events, participate in activities and spending time teaching them new and interesting things.

Delbert is survived by his wife of 55 years, Ruth Ann; his two daughters; Carrie McCarthy and Nicole (Conrad) Langland, and five grandchildren; Kylie, Jack, Thomas, Ryan and Drew.