George Michael Tumblin, age 60, died quietly at home on March 11, 2023. George was predeceased by his parents, John and Michelina Tumblin, and by his sister, Cheryl Tumblin. George leaves behind five siblings: Anne Tumblin Haxo and Thomas Haxo; Henry Tumblin and Rita Tumblin; John Tumblin and Leonora Tumblin; Mary Swartzentruber and Craig Swartzentruber; and Joan Tumblin Abassy and Mohamed Abassy and thirteen nieces and nephews.
George’s first nephew, Sam Tumblin, shares his remembrance of George:
When I think of my dad’s two brothers, they remind me of the Odd Couple. There is Henry who is always forward looking, well organized, and driven. Henry is very clearly Felix Unger. In my mind he is always this bigger than life character who has no time for dilly-dallying.
But my Uncle George, he made dilly-dallying an art form. It was his way to pick a path through life. I was never quite sure whether he picked this path because it made him happy, or if he just kept trying to find the path of least resistance. When I was young, I thought he had the best life. He lived with Uncle Henry, then he lived with Aunt Cheryl, and every day he got to work for Grandpa. He got to drive that big van and listen to Howard Stern all day. But that did not make him happy, so he quit and got a job that he found more fulfilling.
I never understood it then, but when I look back at the situation, I fully recognize that if I had to work with my dad every day, it would drive me crazy as well.
As I was trying to figure out my path as an adult, I tried to engage George about what he wanted from life, what goals he might have had, or what he wanted to do. In true George fashion, he always turned these conversations into jokes. I never discovered if he knew what he wanted, or if he just felt it was easier not to want anything.
He shared a dog and cat with Cheryl, and he adopted Betty and Emma after Cheryl passed. Betty’s and Emma's passing broke his heart. I really wanted to get him a parrot, as they have a long lifespan, and every pirate should have a parrot, but I was afraid he could not clear a space for a proper cage.
When I realized that all he wanted to do was withdraw from the world, I was sad. I didn’t understand it. He had these stories about when he was young and so full of life; when anyone pushed him back towards finding more in his life, he always found reasons not to. I was so mad at him for not engaging with the world. There were times when I would visit and force him to engage the world for a bit, but he would use his lopsided humor to get out of it, and I would be a smartass right back at him to force him to engage.
I firmly believe that the ability to run one’s mouth as a weapon is the defining trait of the Tumblin. Using the right words to inflict the maximum amount of humor at the exact right (and wrong) time is one of the mastered skills I have seen shared between the seven children of John and Michelina Tumblin. George definitely had it, and he used it with everyone in his life.
I never understood how he could seem to enjoy and handle being with others, but then refuse to put himself out there. George became my example of how easy it would be to become a hermit if left to my own devices. Every time I went out with George he was engaged and drawn to the people we met. He often shared small points of knowledge on things to expand my understanding of different subjects, he just refused to expand himself.
His obsessive ideologies were dangerous when combined with how smart he was. For some reason back in the 90s, he decided he needed to record every Howard Stern show ever. The problem was that cassette tapes were only 90 minutes long, and the show ran for 4 hours. So George rigged a system to record the show every day on a VCR tape that could record for 6 hours; later he would meticulously transfer it over, without commercials, to 2 audiotapes to listen to later. I never understood what was so significant about Howard Stern that made George want to never miss a word, but it was proof that when motivated, George could do anything. Yet, it was just very hard to motivate him.
When George and Cheryl decided they wanted to own a copy of every movie ever, George went to the rental store every Tuesday in order to copy the new releases the day they came out. Once the age of the digital pirate came around, I think George decided to download everything on the internet. I know he got countless letters from his Internet Service Provider, but he kept doing it anyway. I'm sure that somewhere in the mountains of things left behind, were hard drives and hard drives of movies and TV shows in every resolution from “Filmed on a Potato” to super high definition. Most of them had not ever been watched, but he wanted them anyway.
George was my uncle. He was a consistent character in a world filled with very boring people. My very own Oscar Madison. I will miss him, and that hurts.
At the request of the family, services will be private.