Black Hills native, artist, and teacher Richard DuBois has died at the age of seventy-three. Among his many personal and professional achievements, DuBois was a long-time professor at Black Hills State University - he also helped found the Northern Plains Watercolor Society.
Friend and fellow painter Joanne Nelson says DuBois will be dearly missed.
“Richard had a mischievous way about him – a chuckle and a giggle. He was every person’s friend. He was so easy to be with and get on with and yet he had so much talent and ability that you felt that he should be on a pedestal and he was so humble that he was not. He was a very, very talented teacher in that he could break down the complex things in artwork and develop your skills as an individual. Rather than trying to paint like him, he was trying to teach you to paint like you. He had an incredible passion for art and his ability and talent were very, very strong,” says Nelson.
Nelson says DuBois had an enormous impact on his friends, his students, and the Black Hills art scene as a whole.