Longtime Big Lake teacher Stockard killed Tuesday in South Dakota crash

BIG LAKE — A veteran Valley teacher and well-known community figure perished following a car wreck near Freeman, South Dakota Tuesday, local residents said.

Former co-workers remembered Keith Stockard, 55, formerly of Big Lake, as an extremely dedicated teacher and outdoor enthusiast. Stockard died when the 1999 Ford Explorer he was driving east on Highway 44 struck an unloaded garbage truck coming in the opposite direction, according to an article on the Mitchell Daily Republic website.

First responders transported Stockard to a nearby hospital, where he died March 10, according to the article.

Mark Vingoe, a retired principal who worked with Stockard, remembered him as a man seemingly itching to get outside.

“He would take kids fishing, try to get them out in the sun, so they could participate in positive activities,” he said.

A going-away celebration for Stockard in the mid-2000s filled the Big Lake Elementary School auditorium gymnasium, Vingoe remembered.

“It was amazing,” he said. “I had never seen anything like it.”

Stockard worked at Big Lake Elementary so long, former students often requested Stockard teach their children, Vingoe said.

Among the events featured at Stockard’s going-away party was a choreographed dance involving animal masks as a tribute to Stockard’s love of hunting, said Janis Brown, a long-time fellow teacher. Brown received numerous communications from Stockard since his move to Montana, all of them ending with the sign off “Living the dream under the Big Sky country,” she said.

Stockard was a man of sometimes surprising — if not unanticipated — charity and warmth, Brown remembered.

For example, during an Iditarod re-start at Knik Lake, Brown and Stockard were manning a checkpoint when musher Charlie Boulding came through, Brown remembered

“He was wearing a pair of beat-up gloves that were held together with duct tape,” she wrote, in an email. “Keith took off his new, and very expensive gloves and said, ‘Hey Charlie, I really want these gloves to go to Nome, do you think you can take them there for me?’ Charlie had one a big smile when he put the gloves on and thanked Keith.”

Another time, he taped a dollar bill to the outside of Vingoe’s door and wrote “The buck stops here” on it, Brown remembered.

Stockard also kept a large trophy room in his house, with mounts from numerous hunts and safaris, Brown said.

“Sometimes it seemed incongruous because he was such a kind, sensitive person, and then he had this huge trophy room,” she said.

“I guess he will be greatly missed, obviously,” Brown added. “He touched a lot of lives, and it was like a river. He touched your life, and that touched other people’s lives. He almost embraced anybody that was connected with someone he loved.”

Stockard is survived by his son, Kenneth Stockard; daughter, Lacy Stockard Osborn; and a sister, Kathleen Stockard Ottosen, Brown said.

Community members were working to finalize a memorial service for Stockard set for March 21, though other details — such as the time and location — are not final.

Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2269, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.