Mark Pearson Butterbrodt, MD, FAAP “Dr. B”,  74, died Dec. 5, 2023, in Rapid City, SD.
He was born Aug. 1, 1949, in Webster, SD, to Dallas and Margaret Pearson Butterbrodt.
He grew up in Watertown, SD, and graduated from Watertown High School, went on to earn an A.B. in English at Harvard, then studied medicine at the Universities of South Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa.
He specialized in pediatrics and was board-certified in neonatology. After serving six years in the Indian Health Service (IHS) in South Dakota in return for government help he received for his medical training, he practiced for several years in Minneapolis, first at Children’s Hospital, then with the academic physicians group staffing Hennepin County Medical Center, a teaching hospital. In 1992 he won a Bush Foundation fellowship which he used in part to earn a master’s degree in epidemiology.  He used the remainder of the fellowship to return to South Dakota as lead physician on a two-year project that screened over 5,000 school-age children of the Pine Ridge Reservation for markers predictive of early onset Type 2 Diabetes, a disease epidemic among Native Americans. In that work, and among those people, Mark found his true calling.
He chose not to return to the secure practice perch he had left in the Twin Cities but elected to stay in Pine Ridge to fight diabetes and other chronic diseases. Mark had qualms about the institutional mediocrity of the IHS, but re-entering the commissioned corps was the only option at the time that provided a clinical base in that area for doing the work he wanted to do.
He preached that diabetes was not a certain killer but could be prevented with lifestyle changes. He embraced the Oglala Lakota people — their culture and spirit. He understood it was a privilege to be invited to attend ceremonies, and he did so humbly with an open heart. He embedded himself in the community, he made the effort to learn the Lakota language and speak it with his patients, built a fitness center, planted gardens and fruit trees, played the organ in church, coached and chauffeured basketball teams, gathered stones for the sweat lodges, promoted reading and literacy, mentored and trained community health workers, told jokes over the air on tribal radio, spent generously on gifts for children—the list goes on and on.
He made hundreds of friends. Mark’s exceptionalism stands out because he was more than a fine doctor; he was a warrior working day to day and side by side with the people he served for things that affirmed their worth and raised their hopes. Mark left the IHS upon completing 20 years of service but continued to work in other clinics and hospitals serving the Native population almost until his death.
The American Academy of Pediatrics presented Mark with the Native American Child Health Advocacy Award in 2012. That award captures the essence of Mark’s heroism. All he really cared about were the people he served, and children were by far his favorite patients.
Mark said the highest compliment he ever received was from the respected elder and medicine man, Rick Two Dogs, who credited him for being the agent who changed the attitude of the Oglala Lakota people about their most dreaded scourge, diabetes. Doc B, he said, helped them understand it as a preventable disease instead of an inevitable killer.
Mark lived simply. His lifelong generosity held the first lien on all he ever earned or owned.
Upon news of his death, the incredible affection, esteem, and admiration that poured forth from the many whose paths he crossed testify to his uncountable good deeds, his unflagging allegiance to his oath as a doctor, and the galactic void he leaves behind.
Mark happily chose a hard road upon which to exercise his gifts. His life journey on that road was an incomparable example of dedication, integrity, generosity, and purpose.
He was preceded in death by his parents and his son, Walter Dan Hardy, III.
Surviving relatives include his sister, Mary Ann Jackson; brothers, Robert (Margaret Marrinan), and John (Julie) Butterbrodt; sister, Lynn (Al) Hublou; nephews, Robert A. (Angelique), and Andrew (Alison Drummond) Butterbrodt; nieces, Laura Butterbrodt, Jennie (Justin) Mayer, Ellen (Jared) Feiner, and Mollie (Taylor) Wait; five grandnieces; and aunt, Joan Pearson Kelly.
His many surviving kinship relatives include Johnson and Cecil Bear Robe, JR Noisy Hawk, Rae Ann, Evelyn, and Irmina Red Owl, Keisha, Emily, Jordan, and Tyson Good Weasel, Mary Tobacco, Elaine Yellow Horse, Faith Spotted Eagle, Richard Iron Cloud, Rick Two Dogs, Rosalie Little Thunder, and Peter Janis. Many counted him a relative, and any omission here is not meant as a slight or diminution of the relationships he formed.
His Lakota relatives and friends would use these words when speaking of him: Wakanyeja iwicayuskin (he enjoyed children), Igluonihan (respectful), Wowokiye (helpful), Wacanteognake (compassionate), and Wowahwale (kind).
Mark was a very honorable man.
Memorials will be held at a later date.