Dean Armstrong, Member North Dakota Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame - Dean Ross Armstrong, age 75, of Sentinel Butte/ Beulah and Medora, North Dakota died at his ranch north of Sentinel Butte on Tuesday, September 13, 2005. 

A Prayer Service will be held at 7:00 P.M. Sunday, September 18, 2005 in the Chapel of the Silvernale-Silha Funeral Home in Beach, North Dakota. 

Dean was born June 19, 1930 in Steele, North Dakota, the son of Hugh Hunt and Gladys (Smith) Armstrong. He was a believer in Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior and attended the Seventh Day Adventist Church. Dean graduated from Sentinel Butte High School in 1948. 

Dean ranched and rodeoed professionally from age 17 until he was 33, until a bad bronc wreck took him out of competition. He married Kari Li Kuhr and had two children, Kipp Lee and Kimber Lynn. 

Dean began to race horses on tracks from Winnipeg to Phoenix, and raced thoroughbreds for 30 years. In 1991 he married the love of his life, Fran Erickson(Schield), in Medora, North Dakota during the annual Cowboy Poetry Gathering. He was inducted into the North Dakota Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame in 1999. 

Dean and Fran enjoyed entertaining through music and verse. In 1993 they restored the historic log cabin on his ranch. This developed into a bed and breakfast that brought guests from all over the world. 

Dean had a gift for making friends. He always rode on the sunny side and saw the best in people, he had a sharp wit and would burst into song at the drop of a hat. He loved to play pinochle, he loved company, he loved horses, he had amazing grace. 

Dean was preceded in death by his parents, and his sister, Mary Lou Theroux. 

He is survived by his wife Fran; a son, Kipp and his wife Rhonda Gress of Dickinson, North Dakota; daughter, Kim and her husband Bruce Birkeland of Baldwin, North Dakota; three stepdaughters, Jodi Erickson of Hollis, Oklahoma, Gina Weiler and her husband Neal of Beulah, North Dakota, Julie Erickson of Beulah, North Dakota; his sister Bettie Erickson of Billings, Montana; and 9 grandchildren Stacie and Tyler Gress, Sam Birkeland and Ellen Heinert, Shawn and Nicona Burman, Autumn Weil, Hailey Cannon and Samantha Flemmer. They were all "His Chickens". He will also be mourned by nieces, nephews, sisters and brothers-in-law, and friends. 

The family requests memorials be sent to the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Medora, North Dakota.