Hugh Weber

Hugh M. Weber, age 45, of Sioux Falls, South Dakota died unexpectedly at Sanford USD Medical Center on Wednesday, March 15, 2023.  A Memorial service celebrating his life will be 10:00 AM, Saturday, March 25, 2023 at George Boom Funeral Home and On-Site Crematory. Visitation will be 4:00 – 7:00 PM Friday, March 24 at the funeral home in Sioux Falls. 

Hugh Weber, a Titan, passed on March 15^th, 2023. He was 45 years old. 

The Titans were the children of heaven and earth, as was Hugh. He was descended of heavenly forces to the great northern plains of the United States.  

Only slightly less metaphorically, Hugh was born in Milbank, South Dakota on September 27, 1977, to Jimmy and Nancy Weber. He played High School football with his brother Luke, who went on to play football with their younger brother Adam after Hugh graduated. Their youngest sister, Becca, didn’t play football, but was probably tough enough to do so.  

Growing up, he excelled in many areas, as Titans do: awarded to the SD High School All-Star football team, Boys State Governor, All-State choir, student body president at Clark High School, high school play lead roles in Milbank and Clark, and awarded outstanding actor in State One Act Plays. He was an accomplished sax player, loved to play piano and sang in high school choir and competed in both band and vocal competitions. Perhaps most notable was his singular interest in political memorabilia, in particular the legacy of John F Kennedy. By the time he graduated high school, he had accumulated a substantial collection of governmental and political memorabilia. He then left his home state for school at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. Titanic studies being unavailable as a formal course of academic pursuit, he majored in Political Science with concentrations in Public Policy and Black Studies. He sang with his collegiate a cappella group, Sixteen Feet, as a bass, the most titanic of voice parts. 

He worked for political campaigns and achieved his Master’s Degree from George Washington University before finding his way to his true calling, which was his unique blending of community building, design, innovation, and marketing. He was an artist and his medium was human connection. He grew businesses like wildflowers: Organizer and Curator for TEDxSioux Falls, Co-President of AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts), Founding Hub Curator of Global Shapers from the World Economic Forum, CEO & Founder of OTA, President of Deep Bench, Managing Director of Design Observer, Creator of Dude to Dad and author of two books, Initiator of the Sioux Falls city flag, Founder & Guide for the Institute of Possibility, CEO of The Great Discontent and We Must Be Bold, and finally, Creative in Residence at Taliesin, the iconic Frank Lloyd Wright property in Wisconsin, situated, perhaps, next to Mount Olympus. To have accomplished all this was to have an energy in excess of mere mortals and a will and enthusiasm of titanic proportion. 

Despite the scale of those accomplishments, they paled in comparison to the meaning and joy he derived from the center of his universe, his wife Amy and children Emerson and Finn. They were his firmament and his inspiration. They were sources of and recipients of an epic love. And love is something that Hugh did well. 

Family, friends, colleagues, neighbors, classmates, and bakery owners all felt the gravitational pull of his titanic love. Live and digital events he produced were pervaded by that love, as well as his intellect, his creativity, and his curiosity. Curiosity about the people around him, near and far, about ideas, about design and beauty and commerce and society. The hole left by his departure is too large to comprehend. His loss will be felt like a change in gravity, because that’s what a titanic loss is. 

He is survived by his wife Amy and children Emerson and Finn, parents Jimmy and Nancy Weber, Watertown, SD; Grandmother Helen Dahle Milbank, SD; Brothers Luke (Tonia) Weber, and children Samantha, Ethan, Hannah, and Leo of Hitterdal, MN; Adam (Becky) Weber and children, Hudson, Wilson, Grayson, and Anderson of Sioux Falls; Sister Becca (Seth) Honeyman and children Izaac and Mathew of Watertown, SD.

George Boom Funeral Home- Sioux Falls is in charge of the arrangements