Earl Tech

Funeral services for Earl Ray Tech, age 86, were held at 10:30 a.m., Friday, June 13, 2025, at Prairie View Gospel Barn in Gregory, SD, with Pastor Keith Cline officiating.

Deb Bartling and Diane Boska were in charge of registration.

Casket bearers were Thomas Litherland, Daniel Tech, David Tech, Doug Roggow, Justin Bartling, and John Frank.

Interment was at the Tech Family Cemetery in rural Burke, SD. Military honors were conferred by the Gregory American Legion and the National Navy Honors Team. Kotrba-Smith Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.

Earl Ray Tech was born to Edgar and Dora (Frerichs) Tech December 9, 1938, in Burke, South Dakota. He was the second youngest of seven children. He grew up on the family farm, first attending Pleasant Valley Country School and then Naper High School through his junior year. He graduated with the class of 1956 from Bonesteel High School because his family had moved to St. Charles, SD, to open the Tech Standard Station.

After high school, Earl joined the U.S. Navy and served for four years on the U.S.S. Northhampton CLC-1 Flagship touring the Atlantic. As part of his service, he was granted early discharge to attend college at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, where he studied mathematics and physics. With his bachelor’s degree he secured a job with the University of California at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and later transferred to the Los Alamos National Laboratory in NM, where he worked as a group leader, managing classified projects and physicists with PhDs until his retirement.

Always an avid fisherman and hunter, Earl spent many hours in the out-of-doors, passing along his love for outdoor adventure to his children and grandchildren. He always wanted to get back to farming and ranching the way he grew up. He became a weekend farmer and rancher in Ocate, NM, raising a herd of 100 head of cows and calves, putting up oats, baling alfalfa hay, and going on cattle drives to the Ten High for mountain meadow summer grazing and round up. After his Uncle Harold retired from farming, Earl came into the Frerichs family homestead in Gregory County, SD, and was able to realize his dream of returning to the farming roots of his childhood. He moved from his home in Santa Fe, NM, to the homestead and spent the remainder of his life running, renovating, and expanding the property until his death on June 9, 2025, at the Avera Gregory Hospital.

Earl is survived by his children Carol (Ken) Litherland, Yulia (Matt) Sergeeva Manokina-Gallegos, and Sophia Tech; his grandchildren Linda Wegner, Christina Litherland, Nicky (Thomas) Litherland, Katyanna, Giovanni and Zaillah Manokina-Gallegos, and Ricky and Anastazia O’Leary; his sister-in-law Judy Tech, and many nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Judy Shelby Tech. Other relatives who predeceased him include his parents, his daughter, Cindy Wegner, his brothers Darrell Tech and LaVerne Tech, and his sisters Phyllis Tech, Betty Martin, Iola Frank, and Janet Speidel.