Duane Ewalt

Duane Ewalt, age 75 of Alzada, Montana, died Monday, November 22, 2021 at the Monument Health Rapid City Hospital.

The funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, December 3, 2021 at Leverington Funeral Home of the Northern Hills in Belle Fourche. Visitation will be held 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, December 2 at the funeral home. Interment will be held at Black Hills National Cemetery, in Sturgis, with Military Honors provided by the Belle Fourche Veterans Honor Guard.

Duane's funeral will be broadcasted live online, on his obituary page located on the funeral home's website: http://www.LeveringtonFH.com, where there is a video tribute as well.

Duane was born September 3, 1946 in Spearfish, SD to parents Robert "Bud" and Margaret (Owen) Ewalt. He grew up in Alzada, Hammond, Newell and Terry, MT with his parents and two sisters and moved to California in 1962 for high school. He was drafted by the U.S. Army in 1966 and served America in the Vietnam War for two years. Duane was honored in receiving the Purple Heart from his injuries in the war and that experience stayed with him for the rest of his life.

After the war, Duane moved to Las Vegas where he took classes at the University of Nevada and dealt blackjack at the Horseshoe. Later he lived in Phoenix where he worked in photography, Miami where he began dismantling ships and Houston.

Duane moved back to Miami in 1975 where he met and married the love of his life, Debbie Kucaba. Together they have three children, Sophia, Samuel and Sara. Duane and Debbie settled in Houston in the late seventies where they spent time practicing Taekwon-Do, Aikido, Kung Fu and Judo with Van-Binh Self Defense Academy and the Houston Judo Club. Duane worked extremely hard to achieve a brown belt in Taekwon-Do. Duane took accounting, business and computer courses and was forever fascinated with computers. He took advantage of the industrial and entrepreneurial spirit of Houston and made his living across various pursuits including scrap metal, land and property investment and concrete crushing. He notably was awarded the job of dismantling the bow of the Chevron Hawaii, put the land deal together in San Leon, TX to dredge a barge slip notably named "Ewalt's Cut", and owned and operated a Kumatsu excavator that utilized a special attachment that he personally designed to demolish concrete structures.

Duane and Debbie made their way back to Alzada in 2009 where they began attending Rangeland Ministries Church and built from it a community of wonderful friends. Duane enjoyed his work in the Halliburton bentonite mine where he operated a disking tractor.

Duane is survived by his wife, Debbie of Alzada, MT; children, Sophia (Matthew) of Houston, TX, Samuel of Bozeman, MT, Sara of Tallahassee, FL; grandson, Arthur Behrmann; sisters, Celia Taylor of Sacramento, CA, Anita (Geoff) Burnaford of Alameda, CA; half-brother, Mark Schwartz of California; and nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents, and step-father, David Schwartz.