Don Calvin Linch was born April 9, 1947 in Hulett, Wyoming. He was the son of Bill and Louise (Cochran) Linch. Don grew up on a sheep ranch near Hulett and he attended Carter Country School in Montana. Don was born with great intelligence and ingenuity, inventiveness, and a great talent for engineering. There wasn’t anything he couldn’t design and create. As a child, he rode horse to school, but before he graduated from eighth grade, he had a bicycle with a motor that replaced that horse of his. Don worked as a body-man at Butte County Motors in Belle Fourche, and in 1965 he started Linch Trucking. He began his trucking business with a 2 ton truck. In 1971, things began to kind of take off for him and he started hauling livestock, hay, and automobiles. Don was considered to be a pioneer in the trucking industry because of his talents to engineer and invent things. In 1986 he started to add axles to his truck and trailers so that he could haul more, and as a result some of his trucks were the largest in America. Trucking was truly his life.
Don married the loved on his life, Katherine Harrison, on October 16, 1972 in Sturgis. To this union was born two boys: Glade and Travis. Don and Kay had a great marriage and they were a perfect match for each other. Kay poured all she had into helping raise the family, and building a successful trucking company. She did the bookkeeping, she washed trucks, she dispatched and kept records. She was vital to Linch Trucking. Sadly Kay died in 2021. Shortly afterwards, Don retired from Linch Trucking and he sold the business to his son Travis who still operates it today.
In 2017, Don was diagnosed with cancer. Don never told too many people about it, but later the cancer became more serious, and he died at his home on Thursday, October 30, 2025. Don was a self-made man; he was a man who came from very little and he didn’t like to take risks. Linch Trucking was his life and he made it into the name it has today. Don had a good heart; he was always thinking and mulling something over in his mind. He was well loved and greatly respected. Don had two main things he did for fun. One was flying airplanes and the other was fishing. Don had a great fishing buddy in Bob, his brother-in-law. Those two resembled the characters from the movie, “Grumpy Old Men”, perfectly, and they made many memories together fishing all over. Don also had a special bond with this dog, Smokey. Those two were great friends.
Don is survived by his sons, Glade (Winter) Linch of Belle Fourche, Travis Linch of Belle Fourche; 8 grandchildren, Sage, Conner, Paul, Randi, Auburn, Kavin, Jaxon, Sameen; great granddaughter, C.J. McMahan; sister, Willa DeBois of Tooele, UT; several nieces and nephews; and sisters-in-law, Shirley Bethancourt of Belle Fourche and Mary Crane of Black Hawk.
Don was preceded in death by his parents; wife, Kay; infant brother, Mickey; brothers, Dee and Denny; and nephew, Cameron Carlson.
The funeral service will be held 11am Tuesday, November 4, 2025 at the Christian Life Center in Belle Fourche. Visitation will be held 5 to 7pm Monday at Leverington Funeral Home of the Northern Hills in Belle Fourche. Interment will take place at Pine Slope Cemetery in Belle Fourche. The funeral service will be live-streamed from Don’s obituary paged located on the funeral homes website: www.LeveringtonFH.com