Longtime local public servant and utility worker dies at 84, family announces

Kendall Leo Tumbleson, age 84, entered eternal rest on Sunday December 7, 2025. Born May 30, 1941, he grew up on the family farm in Bentonville and spent most of his adult life working in the Adams County area. He was survived by family members listed in the obituary notice.

Tumbleson worked for Favorite Baking Company and for Copeland in West Union before joining Dayton Power and Light. He retired after about 30 years at Dayton Power and Light's Stuart Station, a local utility employer with longstanding ties to the regional economy. His employment history represents a generation of Adams County residents who spent long portions of their careers with area firms, supporting household incomes and local tax bases.

In public life he served as Sprigg Township Clerk for 20 years, providing administrative continuity for township residents and playing a role in local governance and record keeping. He was a member of the Free and Accepted Masons of Ohio and was affiliated for many years with his church. Those community ties extended into volunteer and congregational life across the county.

For neighbors and local officials, Tumbleson's death closes a chapter tied to midcentury patterns of work and civic service. His decades at a major utility employer and his long tenure as township clerk helped sustain both public services and private livelihoods in a rural county where individual civic engagement often substitutes for scaled municipal operations.

Visitation was held Saturday December 13 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Funeral services will be held at Bible Baptist Church in West Union with burial at Kirker Cemetery. Arrangements are with Thompson Meeker Funeral Home. The family suggested memorial donations to Bible Baptist Church or to Ohio Valley Hospice of Hope, and expressed thanks to medical and hospice caregivers who provided support during his final days.