Lance Stormo

Lance Earl Stormo was born to Earl and Rosalyn(Westre) Stormo in Sioux Falls, SD on August 12th, 1961. He died in Sioux Falls on March 31st, 2022.

As a toddler he moved with his parents to Grand Forks, ND where his father attended graduate school and Lance learned to enjoy hockey in subzero temperatures. His family later lived in two different Job Corps Camps outside Albuquerque, NM where, by some accounts, he was the most popular person at the camps. There he started his informal schooling being shown how to catch rattlesnakes and tarantulas and set up dynamite for blasting.

In time for Lance’s first grade his family moved to Omaha, NE where he started school and attended through his sophomore year. He participated in band playing clarinet and oboe. He won matches in debate, gymnastics, diving and swimming. He ranked first in the Nebraska State Sophomore diving competition and two of his gymnastic rivals later made Olympic teams. His parents moved to Sioux Falls his junior year where he continued to debate. He graduated from Lincoln, HS in 1979. He attended South Dakota State University on an Air Force technical scholarship leaving early to work as a programmer. His first job was in California working for a manufacturer of electronics. There he enjoyed cliff diving and was able to see Monty Python Live. He left California working odd jobs until he took a job programming in Montana. He returned to Sioux Falls and a took a job programming for a financial services provider.

He married Wendy Putney and they had three children together. When they were first married he wrote software for retail banking which is still in use by many banks. He also judged debate. He subsequently took a job at Citibank where he wrote interfaces to early dial credit card terminals and cash registers. In 1991, Citibank sold the subsidiary he was employed by and he was required to move to the Baltimore area to retain his job. Thereafter he was only able to see his children over the summer. In Baltimore he worked setting up the initial credit card interfaces for many of the 90’s internet merchants who are now household names. He worked with an all female programming team at a major nationwide fuel chain to implement pay at the pump. Given the equipment and telecommunications of the 1990’s, he was particularly proud of the team accomplishment when the pay at the pump system ran for a period longer than nine months successfully processing millions of transactions without losing a single transaction.

He maintained a large group of social connections with experts in their fields such as law and business. He met frequently to participate in an amateur musical group. One summer he was able to relationship his way into tickets in the owners box of the Baltimore Orioles where he and his children enjoyed great home plate seats for a game. Another time he took his children to the pits for a Nationals drag race. They went to a 4th of July on the capital mall, and another time they saw Olympic soccer in addition to sightseeing at a number of east coast historical locations. After surgery for an ascending aortic aneurysm in 1997 he left programming and the required 24x7 call.

After his surgery he struggled with many tasks of daily living. He went to visit his sister in Kansas City and ending up spending several years there with a friend he met there. They spent summers at her Lake of the Ozarks cabin where he continued his cliff diving before returning to Sioux Falls. Back in Sioux Falls, among other odd jobs, he babysat his niece so his sister could travel with her job. He occasionally filled in his parent’s book store and did other odd jobs. In his leisure time, he enjoyed reading, socializing, playing pool and doing difficult crossword puzzles.

He is survived by three children and nine grand children: Curtis (Lizabeth) - Izak, Madison, Brayden, Olivia and Brooklyn; Kyle; and Amanda - Jordison, Seneca, Jezebel and Holden; a brother Eric (Mary); a niece Mikayla Stormo Dolge; a brother in law Scott Dolge; a former wife Wendy (John) Putney Stormo LaVergne; a great uncle; and three aunts. He was preceded in death by his parents, a sister Kari and eleven aunts, uncles and their spouses.

Services are scheduled at the First Lutheran Church Chapel, 327 S Dakota Ave, Sioux Falls, SD at 11:00 AM on Saturday May 21st, 2022 with a reception to follow.