Patrick L. Rueschenberg was born March 5, 1962 at Watertown, South Dakota, the son of LaVerne and Helen (Richter) Rueschenberg. He died on Tuesday, February 8, 2005 at the Brookings Hospital at the age of 42 years.

He attended Holy Rosary School in Kranzberg, graduated from Waverly High School in 1980 and then attended Lake Area Vocational School in Watertown. In 1982 he got a job with South Dakota Public Broadcasting, starting at the transmitter site at Hetland, South Dakota. Later he became studio engineer at the Pugsley Center in Brookings. He met Juliann Harmon in 1988 and they were married in 1989 in Wagner, South Dakota. The first eight years of marriage he worked full time at PBS and also went to school part-time, graduating in 1998 with a Bachelors Degree in electronics engineering. Public Broadcasting then moved to Vermillion and Pat then took a job with the Instructional Technology Center at SDSU in the Pugsley Center. He again went to school part-time to get his Masters Degree in Education , majoring in curriculum and instruction.

He and Julie were blessed by being able to adopt their son Jacob at his birth in 1999. Jacob was his Daddys sunshine.

Patrick was a member of Phi Delta Kappa, St. Thomas More Catholic Parish in Brookings and the Knights of Columbus Watertown Council. He enjoyed all sports, either watching or participating, and his family was his first priority.

In June of 2003, Patrick got a headache and two weeks later he had surgery for brain cancer. A diagnosis of Glio Blastula Multiform left him with a prognosis of having 12 to 24 months to live. Internet searches revealed a starker reality of an average of eight months length of time between diagnosis and death.

Pat had a whole year between his first and second surgeries with only some short term memory loss, during which time he went back to work full time and spent extra time on trips with his family. In June of 2004 he had a second surgery followed by a third surgery in Phoenix in November. Throughout he was also treated with radiation and chemotherapy. Between his 2nd and 3rd surgeries, he told his wife that he had a blessed life - all that had come before left him feeling blessed. While this is a disease that steals the person slowly from loved ones - the bright side was that he truly had no or very little pain.

He worked with a great bunch of people at ITC who supported and cared for his family and him. A benefit thrown in his honor in August of 2004 showed how well-known and liked he was by the SDSU faculty and Brookings community.

Patrick is survived by his wife Julie; his son Jacob; his parents, LaVerne and Helen Rueschenberg of Watertown, SD; one brother Steven (Susan) Rueschenberg of Burkburnett, TX; three sisters, Pam (Darnell) Rorvik-Albers of Flandreau, SD, LouAnn (James) Clancy of Anaheim, CA, Susan (Greg) Brandsrud of Watertown, SD; his mother and father-in-law, Janet and James Harmon of Wagner, SD; three sisters-in-law, Lisa (Mike) Cihak of Wagner, Christy (Brian) Pulkett of Alexandria, WV, Becky (Randy) Hanzen of Sioux Falls, SD; and his brother-in-law, Johnny (Dena) Harmon of Spencer, NE.

Funeral Mass: 10:00 A.M., Friday, February 11, 2005

St. Thomas More Catholic Parish, Brookings, SD

Fr. Michael Wensing, Officiating

Source - https://www.rudesfuneralhome.com/memsol.cgi?user_id=341501

Source - Photo courtesy of Find-a-Grave member #48428325.