By Dave ClarkeMay 6, 2024
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The sum of a person’s life amounts to the number of lives they touched while they lived.
For Brock Tumbleson, that number is immeasurable. Brock passed away Friday from cancer after surviving a successful double liver and kidney transplant several years ago.
He was born and raised on a farm on Kentville Road in Bureau County and attended Buda-Sheffield High School where he was a rising star in the Future Farmers of America excelling in public speaking. He raised and showed Angus cattle and Suffolk sheep in FFA and in the Straight Eight 4-H Club.
After graduation he attended Black Hawk College East Campus where his teacher and mentor was Eldon “Bud” Aupperle, founder of the program at BHE. He listed “ag communications” as his major. He and Aupperle would later work together — he for Kiwanis and Aupperle for Rotary, to plan the annual Ag Day luncheon co-hosted by the two clubs each year.
In Brock’s freshman year at Black Hawk the direction of his life was to change. Filling in as organist at the First Baptist Church for Herman “Bud” Schueneman since high school, Brock expressed an interest in Schueneman’s funeral home. According to a 1998 Star Courier business profile on the third generation business, Schueneman told Brock to come for a visit the next day, “and he’s been there ever since.” That was 1974, the year he graduated from high school. Tumbleson and Schueneman’s son, Mark, purchased the funeral home from Mark’s dad in 1997 and Brock retired 20 years later, in 2017.
There is hardly an organization or activity in Kewanee in which Brock was not involved in some way. He was on the board of directors of the Salvation Army which he supported with a Christmas concert every year by The Kewanee Classics, a group which also included Jim Blucker and Dave Sherrard.
In 2004 he came up with the idea of a multi-town yard sale involving communities along Route 34. Initially, the plan called for Kewanee, Neponset and Galva, but interest grew and by Father’s Day weekend of 2005, 18 communities stretching 100 miles from Yorkville to Galesburg were signed up for the state’s longest yard sale, “More on 34.” Brock and co-founder Glenn Schwarm of Aunt Daisy’s Bed & Breakfast, got up at 5 a.m. on Saturday each year and spent the day driving the route stopping along the way to browse the sales.
Another of Brock’s “finds” were Christmas decorations for a drive-thru lighted display in Northeast Park. He had seen the bright lights on the horizon at a distance for several years around Christmastime while driving to Peoria and found that they were located on a farm near Elmwood. With friend and Kewanee Chamber Executive Director Mark Mikenas along for the ride in 2016, they decided to get a closer look and found the farm, but only a few lighted displays.
The friends learned that the farmer had died and his wife was unable to set up the many displays which were stored in a shed. They told the woman of their idea to light up a park in Kewanee and she let them have the collection which was set up in Kewanee for the first time in 2017.
Two other organizations which were the beneficiaries of much of Brock’s time and talent were the Kiwanis Club of Kewanee, where he was past president, and the Chamber of Commerce, where he was past president of the board of directors and a member of the Ambassador’s Club which organizes the parade for Hog Days.
Mark Mikenas said Saturday that the thing his friend was most passionate about was Christmas. In addition to the Kewanee Classics Christmas concert for the Salvation Army, Brock and his family set up Christmas scenes in the windows of Furniture Country. Brock also engineered the production of two Kewanee Classics Christmas CDs to raise funds for new downtown Christmas decorations. He also enjoyed making sure that Santa Claus was on hand to meet children at Northeast Park every year, including this year, as well as making an appearance at the Salvation Army.
Next to Christmas, Brock’s passion was collecting what could best be described as “nostalgia,” especially anything western. A long shelf in his garage is filled with lunch pails and thermoses featuring Roy Rogers, the Lone Ranger and other heroes of the old west.
Brock’s knowledge of and interest in collecting went far beyond boots and saddles as he combed auctions and yard sales and gave “Antiques Road Show”-style programs evaluating items people brought in to be identified and appraised.
Brock was an unashamed collector with sheds and barns at his former residence on Osceola Road packed to the doors until he downsized with an auction when he and Molly moved to town. When asked once what would happen to “all of this stuff” when he died, Brock told this reporter with, the customary twinkle in his eye and smile on his face, “My kids tell me that when I die, my obituary will read ‘Service at 10, sale at 2.’” Of course, that’s not how it’s turned out.
Mikenas said Saturday was the last time he talked to his longtime friend
“He was upbeat and in good spirits.”
He said people often saw them arguing, but that was often how they communicated. He said Tumbnleson was a longtime supporter of Kewanee and the Chamber. They also both had an interest in searching for and collecting Kewanee memorabilia. Mikenas said he will miss sharing those “finds” with his friend.
Over the years it cannot be forgotten how many families Brock consoled at one of the darkest moments in their lives, or how many times he played the organ at a funeral or church service.
Always a cheerful volunteer, Brock Tumbleson enjoyed what he put into something more than what he got out of it.
To say he will be missed is an understatement. Kewanee says “Thank you and farewell.”
