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.