Terry Lee Springer was born on June 2, 1952, to Verlyn and Marie Springer in Gregory, South Dakota. He joined his two-year-old sister on the family farm great-great-Uncle Hans Springer homesteaded in 1905. Five years later brother Wayne joined the family.
The family belonged to the Lutheran church in Dixon where Terry learned and implemented a lifelong practice of Christian principles to guide him in his life ahead. At the same time, he began his formal education in a small one-room country schoolhouse, Pocahontas, less than one mile from home.
In 1965, the family moved to Madison, where Terry made many new friends and graduated in 1970. Terry loved learning, especially science, and earned the nickname “professor” from his dad. He built a “ham” radio which he used to contact people from around the world and hear stories from far away. However, when a “lab experiment” blew up in his bedroom, plastering the walls and ceiling and permeating the house with a rotten egg odor, his status as “the professor” didn’t exonerate him from his mother’s displeasure.
Upon graduation, Terry and his best friend, classmate, and future business partner, Dan Prostrollo, rode their motorcycles to Washington D.C. to visit his sister Jolene and her husband Harold, a lab tech in the Navy. It was the beginning of a lifelong love of traveling and wanderlust.
After graduating, Terry moved to Denver where he tried a few jobs before ending up on a house construction crew. Later he moved back to South Dakota and went into business with Dan Prostrollo, who started a Yamaha dealership in Madison. Together, they opened a second dealership in Brookings which Terry ran.
In 1980, he moved back to the family farm and enjoyed that until he became an owner/operator for about ten years, traveling all over America. Then he returned to farming until his semi-retirement a few years ago.
Terry was an excellent storyteller of his life experiences. He loved to take his guitar to the nursing home and play and sing for resident Rex Messick.
Terry loved to work and learn, but what he loved the most was simply helping people. He got the most happiness and satisfaction in life by helping someone in need — family, friend, and stranger. And he did so, not for accolades or a pat on the back, but simply because “it was the right thing to do.” He had an abundance of kindness, empathy, selflessness, and generosity. He lived his life guided by the Christian principles he learned early in life. In many ways, Terry was one of a kind. He had a lot of Forrest Gump in him long before we ever heard of Forrest Gump.
When speaking of someone who has passed, we’ve all heard “the world was a better place when they were in it.” That was certainly true of Terry. He will be missed by all who knew him as the honest, kind, compassionate, genuine person he was. Everyone could learn some life lessons he so clearly and abundantly left from his example.
Terry passed away August 25, 2026. He leaves behind his brother Wayne, sister Jolene, nieces, nephews, cousins, many relatives and friends, and his rock-hunting buddy Anthony Sargent.
A celebration of life is planned for a later date. Kotrba-Smith Funeral Home is handling the arrangements.
