Rapid City, South Dakota, where we lived for 25 years, has many amazing features for a city of its size. About 60,000 people lived there when we moved to the city. In fact, when we moved there, we lived outside of the city. Our neighborhood was annexed into the city during the time we lived in the area. The annexation, with us included, became part of a wider story of growth. There were about 75,000 residents in the city when we moved from there in 2020. Our move was part of a slight dip in population during the Pandemic, but the city has recovered from those days and now has nearly 80,000 residents. That makes it the second largest city in South Dakota, but it is hardly big enough to be called a city in many parts of the world.

Rapid City is fairly isolated. You have to drive more than 300 miles in any direction to find a city that is larger. It’s service area spans a big distance. We were familiar with Rapid City before we moved there because we had lived in Southwestern North Dakota for seven years and though we lived 175 miles away Rapid City was a place where we traveled for shopping and medical care.

Over the years Rapid City has been home to a variety of amazing people. If one were to tell the story of famous people from Rapid City, one place to start might be with Crazy Horse, leader of the Oglala Sioux. Thought the City did not yet exist, Crazy Horse was familiar with the territory and was a powerful leader of people in a time of life altering change. Over the years, a number of people from Rapid City became well known in the world of sports. During our time in Rapid City, I was privileged to know Dick Green, second baseman for the Kansas City and Oakland Athletics in the 60s and 70s, who played on the winning team in two World Series. I met Adam Vinatieri, placekicker for the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts and all time leading scorer of the NFL at 2,673 points. I once stood with Becky Hammon, player for the Women’s National Basketball Association and current head coach of the Las Vegas Aces. And there are a lot of other people from Rapid City who have become well known for other achievements including politics, military service, and education.

A person who was locally famous during our time in Rapid City was not a native. John Vucurevich was born in Yugoslavia and moved with has family to Lead, SD when he was 8 years old. He worked as a miner, a grocer, a hotel operator and insurance agent before becoming successful in banking and bank holding companies. His financial success resulted in the founding of several important endowments in the city, supporting Black Hills Works, Emmanuel Episcopal Church, United Way, Youth and Family Services, and other organizations. One of his amazing gifts to the city was the establishment of a speakers series. Each year an internationally famous speaker is brought to Rapid City by the Vucurevich Foundation. It was important to Vucurevich that the speakers events be accessible to all of the people of the city. Since the founding of the event in 1993, tickets have been priced at $7 for adults and $3 for students. During our time in the City we were able to hear speakers in person that we might otherwise not have been able to hear were it not for the foundation.

It was through the generosity of the foundation that we heard Dr. Jane Goodall speak in 1997. Her talk continues to inspire me all these years later. She has continued to be an important influencer of my thinking and action ever since. Of course I knew of her work with primates before I heard her speak in Rapid City, and I was aware of her environmental activism. Hearing her speak sparked a unique combination of alarm and concern blended with action and hope that has been a model for me ever since.

People have impact beyond the span of their lives. John Vucurevich is no longer living. Jane Goodall, on the other hand is still traveling the world and inspiring people at the age of 90. As the years have passed, the urgency in her speeches has become more intense: “If we don’t get together and impose tough regulations on what people are able to do to the environment - if we don’t rapidly move away from fossil fuel, if we don’t put a stop to industrial farming, that’s destroying the environment and killing the soil, having a devastating effect on biodiversity - the future ultimately is doomed.”

Dr. Goodall is soft spoken, but she is tough. She had to be tough early in her career when other academic researchers criticized and discounted her research with the chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania. Others said her approach of associating so closely with the animals she studied, giving them names and even calling them “friends” lacked the detachment necessary for academic research. Her methods, however, gave her a unique perspective that allowed her to make breakthrough observations and advance the understanding of chimpanzees and other primates.

Her legacy is far beyond information about primates. She has inspired people of all ages to become involved and to take action to help the environment. Her children’s program, Roots and Shoots involves youth from preschool to university age working on environmental, conservation, and humanitarian issues. It has chapters in over 140 countries and 150,000 youth participate in over 8,000 local groups.

Goodall has a unique ability to inspire hope while warning of imminent danger. She is no preacher of gloom and doom. She seems to always be able to find reasons for hope even in the face of dramatic setbacks. I’m not the only person who continues to work and act because of her inspiration.

And I’m grateful to an immigrant who had a big part in providing that inspiration to me. Thank you John Vucurevich.