Richard Duane “Dick” Ellis, 77, of Lander passed away on Monday, June 17th, 2024, at Westward Heights Nursing Home in Lander.
A memorial service will be held July 11, 2024, 10:00 a.m. at the Lander Community Center located at 950 Buena Vista Drive in Lander. Note that this is a change from the earlier planned site of Hudson’s Funeral Home.
Dick Ellis was born on March 30, 1947, to Robert Walter Ellis and Anita Irene (Darnell) Ellis in Lander, Wyoming.
From an early age, Dick set out to be a cowboy. Before he was old enough to be in school, he would ride his horse the half mile from home to the county road to fetch his older brother, Bob, from the school bus. As a youngster, he often rode his horse into the Wind River back country with his family on multi-day pack-trips. As he got a bit older, he was active in 4H and FFA. His 4H projects included horses, rabbits, and leathercraft. He was FFA President his senior year, and he was the 1964 Wyoming State Leathercraft champion. Two of the saddles that he made are still in use on the family ranch. Growing up on the North Fork of the Popo Agie River, he helped his family with their sheep operation in the 1950’s and eventually cattle in the 1960’s. It was during this period that the family started trailing their cattle from the North Fork ranch through Lander to the summer grazing range on Upper Beaver Creek. That tradition continued well into the 1990’s. One of the locally well-known photos of a “Wyoming traffic jam” is Dick front and center, leading the herd through town.
Dick loved participating and watching rodeos. He rode calves as a kid, which led to riding bulls as a young man. He won the bull riding event in Deer Trail, Colorado in 1967. People joked that at 6’4”, he was the tallest bull rider in the country. He was a team roper for over 40 years, often competing and winning local events around Fremont County.
Dick married Lorraine Primmer in 1966. Together they have two children, Rick and Jodi. They later divorced, and Dick met the love of his life, Patricia (Patt), and her young son Jared. They married in 1979 and together they ranched for the next 45 years until Dick’s passing.
Dick started out as a part-time cattle rancher. He had a special bond with his grandparents, Walt and Sue Ellis, who in their later years, leased their Sinks Canyon ranch to Dick. While part-time ranching, Dick was also a U.S. Steel equipment operator for a few years before moving on to work at Lander Lumber. In the mid 80’s, he fulfilled his dream and started cattle ranching full-time. He and Patt raised Angus cattle on the Ellis Ranch in Sinks Canyon. They also ran the Ellis Land & Livestock herd at North Fork after Dick’s father retired from ranching in 1987. Dick loved horses. He raised Quarter Horses to use on the ranch. He always had a well-papered Quarter Horse stud, usually gray, which he bred to his own mares and other horses across the county. Many folks around the area have foals descended from the various studs that he owned over the years.
While Dick drove a lot of fast cars as a young man, his interests changed to slow cars (really slow cars) as he got older. He loved his Ford Model A/B car and truck collection, most of which started out as non-running rust buckets. He and his friends, Vic Hessling and Joe Antolik, spent thousands of winter hours in the heated shop refurbishing those old relics. Eventually he had 7 of them fully restored and running. One of his summer highlights was having his friends and family convoy from Sinks Canyon to drive them in the Lander 4th of July Pioneer Days parade. Dick left a fully restored Model A or B automobile to each of his 7 grandchildren.
Shortly before his passing, Dick found out that, like his uncle Jack Darnell and cousin Nate Brown, he would be inducted into the Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame.
Dick was widely known and loved. Dick enjoyed being around his long-time Lander friends, and you would often see him eating lunch with them and the ranching crew at The Oxbow.
He loved trailing cows, riding good horses, and spending time up in the mountains with his family and friends. He was a gentle giant who lived by a simple mantra, be happy and do the best you can.
Dick is survived by his loving wife Patt; his brother Bob (Suzy) of Ft. Collins, Colorado; his son, Rick Ellis (Christy) of Lander; his daughter Jodi Ellis Church (Travis) of Bennett, Colorado; his step-son Jared Jamerman (Lori) of Asheville, North Carolina; his grandchildren Anna and Richard Ellis, Coulter, Chloe, and Caden Church, Zach Joens, and Sam Jamerman, as well as numerous cousins, nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his parents Robert and Anita Ellis of Lander, and his nephew Ben Ellis of Nashville, Tennessee.
In lieu of flowers, please consider mailing donations directly to: The Lander Pet Connection, 120 Chittim Rd, Lander, WY 82520 or the Wyoming Wildlife Federation, 669 Main St, Lander, WY 82520.
Please sign the on-line guestbook: hudsonsfh.com.