Hugh Richard Hagel age 80 of Flandreau, SD, died Friday April 7, 2023 at Ava’s Hospice House in Sioux Falls, SD after a battle with leukemia.
Family will greet friends beginning at 6:00 PM Friday April 21, 2023 at the Egan Methodist Church, Egan, SD. A memorial service will begin at 11:00 AM Saturday April 22, 2023 at the church with a time of fellowship following the service. Burial will take place at Hillside Cemetery, Egan, SD. In lieu of flowers memorials may go to “Team of Angel’s” in care of the City of Flandreau, 1005 W Elm Ave., Flandreau, SD 57028-1404 or the Moody County Cancer Society.

For a complete obituary go to www.millerfh.com

Hugh was born in Lynch, NE, to Anna (Ahlers) and Clarence Hagel. The family farmed in Minnesota briefly before buying the farm near Flandreau, where he was raised and where he and his wife, Jane (Nielsen) Hagel raised their children.
In his youth, Hugh raised and milked Ayrshire cows with his father and brother, Jim, as well as running a herd of Angus cattle. He was a proud member of 4H and loved going to the SD State Fair to show cattle. In later years, he judged cattle, hogs, and chickens (why chickens?). He really loved judging chickens and, even after he tired of having actual chickens on the farm, collected all manner of chicken figurines, which graced his house and gardens (What are we going to do with all those ceramic chickens?).
Much to the surprise of many of his contemporaries and almost all of his teachers, Hugh attended South Dakota State College, earning a degree in agricultural science in 1966. After failing to make it into the Army, an adventure he dearly desired, due to the fact that he could only hear what he wanted to hear (no, really, he WAS mostly deaf), he returned to the farm, married Jane, and settled into farming life. At the same time, he also went to work for John Morrell and Co, in Sioux Falls, as a hog buyer, becoming head hog buyer in the late 70s. He worked for Morrell’s for 17 years, before pivoting to a new profession, livestock nutrition consultant (feed salesman, if you prefer), work he did up until the week before he died. His clients loved him, not just because he formulated great product for their herds, but because he was unfailingly honest and decent. His children loved him for the same reason.
The driving forces in his life were his work, his family, his lifelong love of SDSU, and gardening, maybe not in that order. He planted more spring bulbs than he should have and raised pumpkins, squash, and gourds every summer. He enlisted his children (okay, mostly Paula and her crew) in the effort to drag them all out to the end of the driveway, where he collected a free-will offering each fall to donate to the American Cancer Society, after cancer claimed his wife’s life in 2008.
Hugh was described by one of his dear friends as an “original and wild spirit” which is as apt a description of the man as anyone could imagine. He was a force of nature, a helluva story-teller, a great livestock man, and a miserable housekeeper. He will be missed.
Hugh is survived by his children: Rochelle (Ralph Knickrehm) Hagel, Rich (Stefanie) Hagel, Paula (Stephen) Hawks, and Dan Hagel; six grandchildren, Cassandra and Hugh Knickrehm, Emma Hagel, and Ruby, Tristan, and Amelia Hawks; his brother, James Hagel and sister-in-law, Cheryl Hagel.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Jane, parents and grandparents, Lydia (Buntrock) Hagel and Edward Hagel and Lydia (Mayer) and Dietrich Ahlers.