Frank Brost, Mickelson chief of staff who carried state after airplane tragedy, dies

Longtime Republican kingmaker, rancher came from humble West River background

For several days in 1993, Frank Brost helped hold South Dakota together in one of the state’s darkest moments.

Brost was in his Capitol office on the evening of April 19, 1993 when a receptionist burst in and told him he had to take an urgent phone call. It was around 5 p.m., near quitting time.

On the line was an official from the Federal Aviation Administration. An airplane carrying Brost’s boss, Gov. George Mickelson, had crashed near Dubuque, Iowa. There were no survivors.

Brost, who had been Mickelson’s chief of staff, had little time to mourn the loss of his longtime friend. Word of the crash was starting to circulate in the Chicago media market. It was critical to notify next of kin before the story reached South Dakota.

Brost immediately began calling relatives of the men who died. Besides Mickelson, two state employees and several prominent businessmen perished in the crash.

It was the start of a numbing period for Brost, who helped with the transition of power when Lt. Gov. Walter Dale Miller assumed the governorship. Brost was the master of ceremonies for a memorial service a few days later.

“I got through it because I had to. When it was over, I went off by myself and cried,” he said, reflecting later on the events immediately after the crash.

At the time of Mickelson’s death, Brost had already been the longest serving chief of staff in state history, and he was set to leave the post June 1 to resume practicing law and running his ranch. Instead, he stayed on to help Miller finish out Mickelson’s second term.

Brost, who hailed from a humble but dedicated family of sheep ranchers in West River, died in Sioux Falls Jan. 1. He was 88.

“He was an icon,” said Mickelson’s son, Mark. “They don’t make them like that anymore.”

Although he started out in life as a Democrat, Brost was a heavyweight in 1980s and 1990s Republican politics, allied with Mickelson and U.S. Sen. Jim Abdnor.

His influence in the party cast a long shadow. In 1989, he called John Thune, who was working for Abdnor in the Small Business Administration in Washington. Thune and Brost had grown up in Murdo and their families were friends. Brost told Thune that the executive director post for the state Republican Party was open. The position, he told Thune, was a good avenue to get into politics.

“Frank was the guy that kind of opened the door for me to get back to South Dakota and get involved with George Mickelson on the political side and eventually on the government side,” Thune, now U.S. Senate majority leader, told The Dakota Scout.

“He was a high-impact player,” Thune added. “He touched a lot of people’s lives. Never, never had a doubt what he thought.”

From herding sheep to law

Brost’s rise to the heights of state power started in an unlikely place. Born March 8, 1937, his parents raised sheep on a ranch near Wanblee on the Pine Ridge Reservation. After the reservation canceled sheep grazing permits, the family found a new ranch site near Murdo, along the White River.

Some of his earliest memories were of herding sheep. The family kept several greyhounds they used to hunt coyotes.

“They wouldn’t attack the sheep or anything, but we just had them to kill coyotes because there were so damn many coyotes in the country, and they weren’t real kid friendly,” he said in a 2023 interview with The Dakota Scout.

Life in those early days was spartan. The family lived in two trailer houses along the White River. There was no running water or indoor toilets. They cut wood for heat, and there was no electricity until, near the end of World War II, Brost’s father bought an Army surplus generator.

Over time, his father was able to accumulate thousands of acres of land, much of it coming from homesteaders who hadn’t been able to make it growing crops in the harsh High Plains climate. He bought 6,000 acres for 50 cents an acre when the previous owners couldn’t pay the taxes. The ranch eventually grew to 12,000 acres, and the family moved into a house in Murdo.

The move proved to be fortuitous. The house was across the street from the grade school playground, and there was a basketball hoop.

“Sometimes it had a net on it, sometimes it didn’t,” he said. “But I spent most of my free time – recess, after school – shooting baskets.”

Bouncing a basketball became a constant in his life when he wasn’t in school or working the ranch. He joined a school team in the fifth grade. By his freshman year in high school, Brost was starting for his team. He was also a dominant high school quarterback.

He recalled one game in which his high school team played an alumni team that included Harold Thune, the father of Sen. John Thune. Harold, a World War II fighter pilot who taught at the school, had played basketball at the University of Minnesota.

“Harold guarded me. He took the ball away from me and was down scoring before I realized what was going on. And he had the quickest darn hands. You know, he was a man in his mid-30s, probably at that time, and he taught me a lesson. Same with baseball. You knew he was an outstanding athlete, but he never talked about it.”

Brost’s parents had little formal education – his father, Herman, only getting to the sixth grade after both parents died at an early age – but there was never any question that they wanted Frank to get a college education.

Ralph Ginn, the legendary basketball and football coach at the University of South Dakota offered Brost a full-ride scholarship to play basketball and football. He turned down the scholarship, but did play basketball for USD before deciding to focus full time on scholastics, graduating with a business degree and an Army Reserve ROTC commission.

Following graduation from USD and active duty in the Army, Brost returned to the family ranch. His father had about 3,500 ewes. Sheep ranchers in the Dakotas, Wyoming and Montana had prospered, in part because the federal government had subsidized wool during World War II and the Korean War for military uniforms. But when the United States started fighting in warm climates like Vietnam, the government withdrew the subsidy. The price of wool and lamb plummeted, and many sheep ranchers went out of business. Brost’s parents made the decision to switch to cattle.

He knew he wanted to stay close to the family ranch, but he also wanted to do something else. He had a cousin in law school, and with the encouragement of his parents, he applied to law school at USD, arriving in the fall of 1962.

Mickelson was one of his classmates. The two became close friends. Although Mickelson was the son of a governor – his father had served as governor from 1947 to 1951 – he was not arrogant. He treated people with manners and respect. And he also had a “presence.”

“You just assumed the guy had good things ahead of him in life,” Brost said. “And he was good to people.”

The two often traveled together. But one thing separated them. During the 1964 presidential election, Mickelson supported the Republican nominee, Barry Goldwater. Brost supported Democrat Lyndon Johnson. The two were arguing about the candidates during a hunting trip outside of Platte when Mickelson joked they might have to leave their guns in the car.

Following law school, Mickelson was deployed to Vietnam. By then, he had married Linda. Brost started his law career, ending up first in Kennebec before joining a law firm in Sioux Falls.

In 1967, Brost seized on an opportunity to buy an existing law firm in Presho that specialized in insurance law. By then he was married to his wife, Martha. The law firm meant an upgrade in salary – from $6,000 a year in Sioux Falls to upwards of $28,0000 – and it put him close to the family ranch.

He bought his own farm outside of Presho and started accumulating more pastureland for what was the start of a fledgling family.

“I wanted my kids to learn how to work,” he said.

Political evolution

By 1970, the Roosevelt New Deal Democrat had become a Republican. His change of heart started after seeing striking union workers outside the Argus Leader and being exposed to left-wing activists that led him to think he was “sleeping in the wrong bed” while working in Sioux Falls.

After moving to Presho, he was counseled by former Lt. Gov. John Lindley, who was a conservative Democrat, that life would be easier for Brost as a Lyman County lawyer to be Republican.

And then there was Martha and her family. “My wife,” he said, “was a pretty tough Republican.”

By 1970, he was a player in South Dakota Republican politics. He was close friends with former Lt. Gov. Jim Abdnor, who won a U.S. House seat in 1972 and later beat Sen. George McGovern in 1980. He supported Republican Bill Janklow’s 1974 run for attorney general, and then Janklow’s first race for governor in 1978. Later, Janklow appointed him to the Board of Charities and Corrections, a position that would serve him well as chief of staff.

Throughout the years, he had remained close with Mickelson. The two spent time at the lake and would meet up at Bar conventions. Mickelson’s own career had taken off. After returning from a tour of duty in Vietnam, he had worked in the Attorney General’s Office, then as Brookings County state’s attorney. He was elected to the state House in 1974 and, like his father, former Gov. George T. Mickelson, served as speaker of the House.

“I always told him that if he ran, whenever he ran, I would support him,” Brost said.

That time came in 1986. Janklow, after winning two terms as governor, was done. Mickelson won the Republican nomination in a competitive primary that included former Congressman Clint Roberts. He beat Democrat Lars Herseth, also the son of a former governor, in the general election.

After winning, he called Brost to see if he would help run state government.

“George calls and said, ‘I want you to move to Pierre and be my chief of staff.’ And I said, ‘George, I’ve never done anything like that. What the hell is going on?’ He said, ‘I’ve never been governor before. Come on up and we’ll learn together.’”

But the 1986 election had deep ramifications for the South Dakota Republican Party and Brost. With his second term as governor coming to an end, Janklow challenged Abdnor in the U.S. Senate Republican primary that year. In 1985, rumors began circulating that Janklow might run against Abdnor. Prior to taking a Christmas vacation with his family to Florida, Brost confronted Janklow about the rumors. He demanded to know if they were true, threatening to resign as chairman of Board of Charities and Corrections, saying he couldn’t “serve two masters.”

Janklow, Brost said, assured him he wasn’t running, even though he had already made up his mind that he was.

“He lied to me,” Brost said.

“So that’s when Janklow and I parted company.”

Abdnor prevailed in the primary, but it was a bruising campaign that created a rift in the GOP for two decades, one Democrats were able to exploit. Abdnor lost in the general election to Democrat Tom Daschle, who recaptured the seat McGovern lost in 1980. Democrat Tim Johnson won Daschle’s congressional seat, setting the stage for him to win a Senate seat a decade later.

Abdnor supporters, including Brost, blamed Janklow for the loss.

Governing

There was much work to do when Mickelson entered office in January 1987. Voters had authorized a state lottery and limited gambling in Deadwood in 1986. It fell to Mickelson to implement the lottery. In his first legislative session as governor, Mickelson proposed a temporary 1-cent sales tax to create a fund for low-interest economic development loans. The Legislature approved the tax – setting an expiration date of April 1, 1988 or a ceiling of $40 million, whichever came first.

He also increased state funding to education in a move to make school districts less beholden to property taxes.

Following the 1987 session, Brost and Mickelson flew to Washington, D.C. to meet with members of Congress. They learned that the federal government had plenty of money for rural water projects, but they were counseled by California Rep. George Miller, who chaired the Natural Resources Committee, not to seek money for irrigation projects. Congress had no stomach for such projects.

Back home, they put together a rural water plan, harnessing revenues from the newly created lottery as collateral for bonding authority.

Mickelson stayed true to his word that his temporary sales tax was, in fact, temporary.

“The Democrats were wanting to borrow from hocus pocus, but we stuck to our guns,” Brost said.

After serving on the Board of Charities and Corrections, Brost was convinced it needed significant reform. The office had been authorized by the state Constitution. Mickelson put Brost in charge of leading an effort to abolish the office and establish a Department of Corrections. Votes approved the effort in the 1988 election.

Following the successful vote, Mickelson secured funding to build the Jameson Annex at the South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls, and he also secured money for a new Human Services Center in Yankton.

The governor declared a “Year of Reconciliation” in an attempt to repair relations with Native Americans in 1990. That year, voters rewarded Mickelson for his efforts. He easily won a second term.

Mark Mickelson said Brost and his father had a unique relationship that was a partnership in governing. Brost never let his father be the bad guy, and he said his father was fortunate to have someone with Brost’s pedigree helping him.

“My dad would feel that Frank was there for him,” he said. “They both wanted what was best for South Dakota, regardless of political ideology.”

In November of 1992, Brost was eying the exit. Most of Mickelson’s big projects were completed. In November, he traveled to Australia for two weeks to see if he could recharge his batteries. Shortly after returning home, his mother died.

By then, the family ranch had grown to about 13,000 acres. Brost wanted to spend more time on it.

On March 26, 1993, at the end of another legislative session – this one with Democrats controlling the Senate, a historic anomaly for South Dakota, Mickelson announced that Brost was stepping down as of June 1. Dean Krogman would replace him.

“After six and a half years and seven legislative sessions, the longest service of any chief of staff, Frank Brost wants time to rest up and pursue new opportunities,” Mickelson said.

Less than a month later, tragedy struck. Mickelson had flown to Cincinnati to meet with the owners of the John Morrell and Co. packing plant, who were threatening to pull out of Sioux Falls. Mickelson’s delegation included a cadre of the state’s business leaders: Roland Dolly, 37, the commissioner of the state Office of Economic Development; Ron Reed, 52, the director of the Office of Energy Policy; Angus Anson, 38, general manager of Northern States Power; David Bikeland, 54, president of First Bank of South Dakota; and Roger Hainje, 45, president of the Sioux Falls Development Foundation. The plane was piloted by Ron Becker, 52, state chief pilot and David Hansen, 45, state pilot.

On the return, the Mitsubishi MU-2 twin prop airplane sustained prop damage on one of its engines. The pilots were attempting to negotiate an emergency landing in Dubuque when the plane slammed into a farm silo in Zwingle, Iowa — about 600 miles from Pierre.

As the new governor, Miller asked Brost to stay. He agreed. But it wasn’t easy.

“Walt needed me, and I wanted to make damn sure that the Mickelson agenda was finished as it had been planned and started, and that Walt didn’t let some people change some of this stuff,” Brost said.

Leaving government

Miller failed to win the nomination in 1994, losing to Janklow. Brost left office with him. He and Martha took a nine-week trip to Australia and New Zealand.

He remained busy with his ranch, serving on bank boards and practicing law. He also became more involved with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, testifying before Congress on issues related to ranching.

In 1998, voters passed a constitutional amendment that prevented corporations from acquiring farm and ranching land. The only way to bypass an amendment is to repeal it at the ballot box or for a court to rule it’s unconstitutional. Brost joined the South Dakota Farm Bureau as one of 12 plaintiffs to challenge the amendment. The group recruited David Day, a constitutional law professor at USD’s law school, to join the legal team.

Besides banning corporate ownership, the amendment stipulated that ag owners had to be actively involved in the day-to-day affairs of their operations. By then, Brost had suffered a heart ailment and was living in Rapid City. While he managed the ranch and worked there during haying and for irrigation, he wasn’t involved in daily operations. The lawsuit argued that virtually all farms and ranches were owned by corporations for tax reasons, and that the amendment discriminated against people with physical impairments.

Brost helped recruit plaintiffs to challenge the amendment, and they filed suit in January 1999.

“I’m a big supporter of producers maintaining ownership of their commodity on through the process as much as possible,” he said in the 2023 interview. “But we never have enough capital to do all the things . . . In order to feed the people that need to be fed in this country, corporate involvement is a necessity.”

The case made it to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled in the favor of Brost and the other plaintiffs in 2003, invalidating the amendment.

By then, central and western South Dakota were gripped in drought. Brost’s ranch was in better shape than most – he had run irrigation to his pastures from the White River. But the situation was growing dire enough that he had to contemplate selling off a herd he had built up over decades.

Despite the pressures, recalls Kurt Brost, Frank’s son, he gave out Christmas bonuses to his hired men, including the manager, David.

“Dad had always given these guys bonuses, and during the drought, when you lost your ass, David sent it back. And he said, ‘You ain’t making any money this year. I ain’t making any extra money,’” Kurt Brost recalled.

The stress of running a ranch, plus the heart problem that required a stint, led Brost to sell the ranch he and his father had accumulated over decades. In 2014, he moved to Sioux Falls. It proved to be a life-saving move. After suffering more heart problems, he underwent a triple bypass in 2017 after Martha took him to the emergency room.

In 2018, Brost was elected to the South Dakota Basketball Hall of Fame. His picture, Thune noted, hangs in the Murdo city auditorium.

Brost reflected on the importance of his father, Herman, in teaching him to respect other people.

“You know,” he said, “I’ve done lots of stuff. And the guy behind me is my father.”

He is survived by his wife, Martha, and children, John, Kurt and Mark. Funeral arrangements were pending.