Ardessa Moser, age 84, formerly of Miller and rural Wessington, passed away peacefully on Monday, April 6, 2020, after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer’s at the Avera Weskota Manor, Wessington Springs, S.D.

A Celebration of Life Memorial Service will be held at 2:00 p.m., Saturday, September 5, 2020, at Reck Funeral Home, Miller, with Rev. Brian Jones officiating. A Burial Service will follow at 5:00 p.m., Rose Hill Cemetery, rural Wessington. The family requests that masks and social distancing be practiced.

Honorary pallbearers are Tom Koth, Brian Winter, Merle Harvey, Byron Woodruff, Marlen Winter, and Dustin Hass (deceased). Pallbearers will be Ardessa’s grandchildren.

Ardessa Joan Yost was born in Miller, South Dakota, on February 4, 1936, the third daughter and fifth of seven children born to Charles and Hazel (Campbell) Yost. She was baptized at the Pleasant Valley Church in September of 1937. She grew up on her parents’ farm in Mondamin Township in southern Hand County, where she attended country school, first through the eighth grade. She attended her freshman year of high school at Wessington Springs, 1950-51, and then transferred to Miller High School. She graduated as MHS Class Salutatorian in 1954. She attended one year at Huron College to earn her teaching certificate, 1954-55, and then taught all of the elementary grades, grades 1-8, at Pleasant Valley rural school for one year. She worked three years as a bookkeeper and teller at the First National Bank of Miller.

Ardessa married Richard Moser on September 6, 1959, at the First Presbyterian Church of Miller. They resided one year in Miller and then moved to the farm where Richard was raised, in Rose Hill Township. To this union were born four children: Mary Jo, Jeffery, Wendy and Gregory. After Greg was born Ardessa resumed to teaching fulltime in rural schools in Hand County and she went back to college to finish her bachelor’s degree, taking night classes and summer school sessions. She received a BS in Education from Huron College in 1973.

Ardessa’s teaching career spanned 35 years. After teaching in the rural schools in the 1960s and early ‘70s, she began teaching first graders, along with her sister, Patricia Waters, in Miller, beginning in 1975. For over a generation, no one passed the First Grade in the Miller School District without being taught by Mrs. Waters or Mrs. Moser. Ardessa earned her Master’s Degree in Education, with an emphasis in Elementary School Administration from Northern State University, in 1982. She earned her Certificate of Public Administration in Elementary Education from Northern State in 1983. While she was teaching, Ardessa was an active member and local officer of the Miller Education Association; member of Miller Business and Professional Women; State BPW Treasurer; and a delegate for the Miller teachers to the South Dakota Education Association annual state conferences for many years.

During the school year of 1979-80, Ardessa and Richard’s family hosted George Gitonga Gitahi from Kenya, East Africa, through the AFS student exchange program for his senior year at Miller High School. In 1984 Ardessa became elementary principal of the St. Lawrence School. Then she was named elementary principal for Ree Heights and all of the Miller School District’s rural elementary schools. She retired as Elementary Principal for the Miller School District in May of 1996, but assisted the district for two more years to oversee the gifted and talented program and to assist other teachers who had students with special needs. Ardessa and Richard moved from the farm to Miller in April 2000.

Ardessa was an ordained Church Elder, and she became Clerk of Session for Rose Hill Presbyterian Church in 1984. She served as Clerk for 25 years, until 2009. She served many years at the Presbytery level to review records and session minutes of churches across the state of South Dakota. In 2002, she was elected as Moderator for the Presbytery of South Dakota, and she served the following year as the Moderator for Presbytery Council, at Sioux Falls.

She was also active in the VFW as a member from Miller Auxiliary #3214, and served in every office position at the local, district, and state levels for the Ladies Auxiliary including, member of the Auditing Committee for the State Auxiliary, State Cancer Fundraising Chair, and State Hospital Chair. She was chosen VFW State President of the Ladies Auxiliary, Department of South Dakota, in 1994-95. She led the state’s delegation to the 81st National Convention of the Ladies Auxiliary to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Las Vegas, Nev., in 1994.

Ardessa also shared her leadership and education skills as a teacher, youth leader, and officer of the Hand County Farmers Union for 35 years, serving many years as the elected Secretary/Treasurer for District 7 Farmers Union in north central South Dakota. In 2008, South Dakota Farmers Union awarded Ardessa with its Lifetime Meritorious Service Award for Education.

Ardessa and Richard enjoyed taking their family on summer vacations, especially to the Pacific Northwest for salmon fishing, joined by relatives and friends through the years. Ardessa moved to the Golden Living Center Alzheimer’s Care Unit at Redfield in January of 2012, and then became a resident of Weskota Manor Avera Nursing Home in December of 2014. Richard joined her there in January of 2018, until his passing on Sept. 7, 2019.

Grateful to have shared Ardessa’s life and love are her four children, Mary Jo of Newport, Oregon, Jeff of Aurora, Colorado, Wendy (Scotty Hofer) of Highlands Ranch, Colo., and Greg (Lynn) of Yankton, S.D. Other survivors include seven grandchildren, Bradley (Tessa) Koschel and children, Avery and Aralynn, of Evergreen, Colo.; Jared (Amanda) Hofer and sons, Antonio, Tacoma, and Dane of Highlands Ranch, Colo.; Kelsey Moser of Woodbury, Minn.; Bethany Koschel (Brian Groover) of Albany, Ore.; Zachary Hofer of Thornton, Colo.; Alexandra Koschel of Maryville, Mo.; and Rebecca Moser of Minneapolis; one brother and sister-in-law, Wilson (Iona) Yost of Wess. Springs, S.D.; five sisters-in-law: Norma Yost of Miller, S.D.; Kathy Yost of Gann Valley, S.D.; Erma Woodruff of Wolsey, S.D.; Evelyn Moser of Des Moines, Wash.; Ida Moser of Huron, S.D.; two sisters- and brothers-in-law: Elaine (Darrell) Peterman and Sherry (Larry) Van Zee of Miller, S.D.; and a host of cousins, nephews, nieces, and friends.

Ardessa was preceded in death by her husband, Richard, in 2019; her parents, Charley, in 1961, and Hazel in 1984; infant granddaughter, Brooke Ann Moser, in 1994; three brothers: Edwin, Wesley, and Charles Yost; two sisters, Charlotte (McCartney Smith) Pope and Patricia Waters; and 12 additional brothers- and sisters-in-law: Dale McCartney, Ralph Smith, Ken Pope, Dale Waters, Leta Yost, Leroy, Clarence, Robert, and Eldon Moser, Eldon’s wife Norma Moser, James Purrington, and Victor Woodruff.

Reck Funeral Home of Miller has been entrusted with Ardessa’s arrangements.

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