Paul Tate, age 62, of Volga, SD,  died on Monday, December 12, 2016, at the Brookings Hospital.  Funeral services are 10:00 a.m. Monday, December 19, 2016, at Eidsness Funeral Home in Brookings with burial to follow in Greenwood Cemetery. Visitations will be from 2-4 p.m. Sunday, December 18, 2016, at Eidsness Funeral Chapel in Volga. Please note the different locations for the visitations and the funeral.

Paul Tate came into the world on November 17, 1954, to George and Elaine (Watson) Tate at Brookings SD . He grew up on a small farm near Sinai, South Dakota. When little Paul was about four or five he was playing hide and seek in the cornfield with his older sister Sue when a sudden summer storm blew in. The wind picked up, the skies were dark. She began to call for Paul that it was time to get back to the house. No answer. The wind blew harder and the skies grew darker. She ran frantically up and down the rows shouting his name louder and louder. Terror gripped her heart. She had lost her baby brother in the field and a terrible storm was coming. She ran to the house to find their mom for help. And who did she see coming out of the house but her precious baby brother. Little Paul was no longer in danger of the storm.

Another farm-related danger that he escaped occurred in his grade school years when he would sneak out to Dad's gas shed and smoke cigarettes he had gotten from a classmate. And we fondly remember the time he spilled a container of BBs in front of the door. He spent more than an hour lying on the ground picking them up one by one. And then when he finished, he dropped them again and had to repeat the process.

Paul attended Sinai Grade School until the school consolidation when he transferred to Volga and the Sioux Valley School system where he initiated the family tradition of playing the trombone in the high school band. He was also a talented artist and enjoyed art class.

He played football in high school, much to his mother's dismay as she was sure he would get hurt. Sure enough, she came home one afternoon after football practice to find him limping around the kitchen table. Aha! Just as she had feared! Except in reality he had been barefoot and stubbed his toe on the kitchen table.

Paul graduated from Sioux Valley High School in 1973 and went into the hay business with Dad, running the hay stacking aspect of the business. However, it turned out that stacking hay was not a good career choice for a man with hay fever, so he got a job in the Coast to Coast warehouse where he worked for at least 25 years, outlasting Coast to Coast and two other corporate buy-outs. He was then employed at Rainbow Play Systems were he worked until he was forced to retire due to health issues.

Paul was apparently unscathed by his early BB experience and continued to enjoy guns and target shooting throughout his life. He also enjoyed playing slow pitch softball and bowling league until his bad knees convinced him he needed to enjoy something a little less physically demanding.

Paul enjoyed family gatherings and was a walking encyclopedia about family history and pretty much any topic he read about or experienced. He was very generous, always helping family and friends in need. He loved to laugh and was a skilled story teller. Even with his health issues in later life, he always maintained a positive outlook, speaking often of the future when he would build a garage and at last begin restoring his two classic Mustangs.

Paul will be greatly missed by his siblings: Rita Tate of Russell, MN; Susan Tate of Sioux Falls; Margaret "Maggie" Brown, David (Xiomara) Tate, and Donna Tate, all of Volga; nieces and nephews; and many friends. Paul was preceded in death by his parents and brother-in-law, Robert Brown.