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Daniel Leo Feist

May 16, 1932-Dec. 18, 2017

Daniel Leo Feist, who

was raised on a McHenry

County farm and livestock

ranch and later became

one of the giants of the

Minot building industry,

died Monday, December

18, 2017, at his home. He

was 85 years old and had

been battling cancer for

several weeks.

He and his four

brothers–Anthony, Ed-

ward, Paul, and Richar-

d–arrived in Minot

around the mid-fifties as

newcomers among the es-

tablished building con-

tractors. In time, they be-

came frontrunners. All

had known hard work

from the farm days of

their Karlsruhe youth and

the confidence that comes

from it. Why not work to-

gether and be part of a

growing Minot, they de-

cided.

They established five

companies that supplied

most of what they needed

for housing and commer-

cial construction, begin-

ning with Feist Construc-

tion Co. A booklet written

for a 2005 family reunion

noted: “They started with

lots of ambition and guts,

two shovels, one wheel-

barrow, a one-ton Interna-tional truck for which Ed

traded his Buick, and

some credit support from

Uncle Charles.”

The other corporations:

Feist Company Inc., Mag-

ic City Lumber, Minot

Sash and Door Inc., and

Feist Cupboards. Dan also

owned Feist Realty Co.

and the Feist Ranch

northeast of Velva which

he maintained from 1964

to 1988. In a side venture,

he founded and owned

Riverside Farms in Lodi,

California, from 1989 to

1999. That move was

sparked in part by the fact

he had several sisters liv-

ing in California. His

three sons followed him

into the construction busi-

ness. Feist Construction

ceased operations several

years ago.

As he prospered, Dan

developed an interest in

philanthropy through the

Minot Rotary Club and its

humanitarian projects,

and the Minot Area Com-

munity Foundation

(MACF), of which he was

a founder. Many of his

contributions were specif-

ic, including a valuable

plot of land given this

year to Bishop Ryan

Catholic School.

He was born May 16,

1932, at Karlsruhe, one of

fifteen children of Frank

A. and Catherine (Senger)

Feist. After elementary

school at Verendrye and

graduation from Karlsruhe

High School, he spent a

year working for the

Morrison Knutson Co. in

Seattle, Washington. He

served in the U.S. Marine

Corps from 1952 to 1955

during the Korean War,

earning a meritorious pro-

motion as an outstanding

Marine.

Following his

discharge, he returned to

Karlsruhe where he mar-

ried Regina (Jean) Merck

on February 4, 1958. Two

years later, they moved to

Minot where they since

have lived.

When he joined the

Minot Rotary Club in

1972, he learned about

the accomplishments of

the Rotary International

Foundation’s humani-

tarian projects. His first

$1,000 donation to the

foundation made him the

Minot club’s first Paul

Harris Fellow.

In 1984, he and his

longtime fishing buddy

and fellow Rotarian Mike

Dolan engineered the for-

mation of the Rotary

Scholarship Foundation, a

separate entity within the

Minot club with its own

bylaws.

Dan and Mike Dolan

then joined Ken Kitzman

and Ken Williams of

Minot as founders in 1999

of the Minot Area Com-

munity Foundation

(MACF), known as the

center for community giv-

ing. The Rotary scholar-

ship fund now is a per-

manent endowment fund

held at MACF. Since its

inception, the scholarship

fund has awarded 709

scholarships totaling

$627,000 to Minot area

high school seniors.

Dan was a charter

member of Investors Real

Estate Trust (IRET),

founded in 1970. He was

a trustee and board

member and served on a

number of IRET commit-

tees. He was a charter

member and director of

North Dakota Holdings

and of Central Venture

Capital. Both were Minot

companies. He was a

director of Minot Builders

Supply Association.

He was a member and

office holder of the Minot

Board of Realtors, served

as president in 1967-68,

and was Realtor of the

Year in 1968. He also was

a member of the Minot

Multiple Listings Service,

the North Dakota Associa-tion of Realtors, the Na-

tional Association of Real

Estate Boards, the Nation-al Institute of Real Estate

Brokers, the Minot and

National Association of

Home Builders, National

Federation of Indepen-

dent Business, Associated

General Contractors of

North Dakota and Associ-

ated General Contractors

of America. He was a

director of First Bank of

North Dakota.

He drew much satisfac-tion from his work with

Rotary and received a

number of awards from

the organization. They in-

cluded the Distinguished

Service Award and the

President’s Citation

Award from the scholar-

ship foundation. He

served three terms as club

president. He was equally

proud of MACF and its

growth. The foundation

currently stands at $36

million in assets and dis-

tributions.

He had been a member

of the Minot Chamber of

Commerce since 1970. He

was a recipient in 2009 of

the Genie, the chamber’s

first place community ser-

vice award for outstand-

ing community develop-

ment. He also was a

member of the Greater

North Dakota Association

(the state Chamber of

Commerce), and of the

Chamber of Commerce of

the United States.

He held life member-

ships in the Veterans of

Foreign Wars, the Elks

Lodge and the National

Rifle Association of Amer-

ica. He also was a member

of the Eagles Aerie and

the American Legion. He

was a director of the

American Red Cross.

He had been a member

of the Knights of

Columbus since 1956, and

was a Fourth Degree

Knight. He served on an

advisory board for the

Catholic Newman Center

at Minot State University

in the 1980s. He was a

board member of Bishop

Ryan Catholic School

from 1973 to 1986. He

was a recipient of the

Bishop Ryan “R” award,

given to individuals who

have made an outstanding

contribution to the school.

From the time he came to

Minot, he was a member

of St. Leo the Great

Catholic Church. He

served as an usher, was a

lay distributor of Holy

Communion, a member of

the parish finance com-

mittee, and was president

of the parish council from

1983 through 1985.

Hunting and fishing

were his sports, and he

pursued these with the

same concentration and

energy that he gave to

building and investing.

Surviving: Dan are his

wife, Jean, of almost 60

years; daughters, Kathy

(Darcy Fettig), Bismarck,

Karen (Dennis Griffin),

Minot, Diana (Alan Reid)

Bismarck; sons, Karl,

Stockton, California, Dean

(Kristi), and Danny

(JoLee), all of Minot; nine

grandchildren, Ashley

Nicole, Zachary Daniel

and Jacob Benjamin Feist;

Ethan Daniel, Cody

Michael and Gracie Jean

Feist; JaDee Marie and

Gage Jameson Feist, and

Clayton Anton Reid; one

great-grandchild, Seth

Michael Darnell.

Sisters: Eva Deibert,

Velva, Agnes Leier, Elk

Grove, California, and

Dorothy Leier, Granite

Bay, California; brothers,

Paul, Elk Grove, Califor-

nia, and Richard, Minot.

He was preceded in

death by: his parents; sis-

ters, Anna, Katherine,

Helen, Mary, Emily, Mag-

dalene and Regina, and

brothers, Anthony and

Edward.

His funeral will be Sa-

turday, December 23,

2017, at 10:30 am in St.

Leo the Great Catholic

Church, Minot, with buri-

al in Rosehill Memorial

Park.

Visitation: Friday, De-

cember 22, 2017, from 4

to 7 pm, with a Rosary re-

citation Friday at 7:00 pm

in St. Leo the Great

Catholic Church, Minot.

Memorialsare preferred

to St. Leo the Great

Catholic Church, Bishop

Ryan Catholic School, or

the Minot Area Communi-ty Foundation.