Michael D. Tobler

It seems a little strange to post something to the blog that we are all so involved in, but I thought that for history's sake it would be best.

Las Vegas Review Journal, June 1, 2006

Michael Dale Tobler, 55, of Las Vegas, died May 29, 2006. He was a partner at Layton, Layton and Tobler, C.P.A. He is survived by his wife, LaDonna; mother, Anette of Las Vegas; daughters, LaDale of Colorado, Jenafer Roy of Arizona, Keryn Ross and Telima of Utah; and sons, David and Samuel of Arizona. Visitation from 5-8 p.m. Thursday, June 1, at Bunkers Mortuary, 925 Las Vegas Blvd. North. Funeral at 10 a.m. Friday, June 2, at LDS chapel on West Cheyenne and Mustang.

Eulogy

Michael Dale Tobler was born on September 4, 1950 in Saint George, Ut. He was the second of six children and the oldest son of Dale and Anette Tobler. As soon as they were able to travel, mom and baby joined Dale in California that he might attend school. When Michael was three, they moved again, this time to Las Vegas where he lived the remainder of his life. As a child he was always in motion. He loved to run and bike and to be busy. His love for the church started early in his life and he never wavered in his dedication or testimony. He loved to help his mother and was very earnest in accomplishing all things asked of him.

In the spring of 1968, he graduated from Western High School. In 1970 he received his mission call to the Sao Paulo, Brazil mission where he served until 1972. He was released from the mission field on his birthday in 1972 and immediately started collage at UNLV. Within a week of the start of school he met a beautiful young girl at the Institute. They dated for three months and then he asked LaDonna to marry him. They were married on September 14, 1973. Michael graduated from UNLV with a bachelors in Personnel management in 1974, one week before the birth of his first daughter, LaDale on June 7. Over the next several years he combined being a father with being a student as he and LaDonna added Jenafer in October of 75, Keryn in Jan of 77, and David in October of 78, all before graduating with his second bachelors in accounting, also from UNLV, in December of 78. Another two years passed as he honed his career before he bought his father’s accounting practice and became a sole proprietor. In May of 81 Michael and LaDonna once again expanded their family with the birth of their second son, Samuel, and completed it with the birth of their last daughter, Telima, on April 11, 1984. Four days before the end of tax season. In the early 90s, Michael merged his practice to create Layton, Layton and Tobler CPA, where he loved working for many wonderful years.

He loved his children very much. We never had any doubts of his love for us. He always had time to listen to us and our problems. When I was two or three, LaDale and I were playing in the backyard. LaDale had just gotten a brand new tricycle for her birthday and she was riding it around and around our back porch. I had inherited the old broken tricycle and was sitting on it pretending to be riding around the porch just like my big sister. Daddy saw us out there and went out and bought another tricycle. When Mom saw him with the new trike, he told her that he just couldn’t stand to see me out there anymore. He always wanted the best for us and worked to give us everything that he felt we needed and, within reason, that we wanted in life.

What he wanted to give us the most was a testimony of the gospel. Just before he passed, he shared how his greatest labor was to help us gain our own testimonies of the church. One of the ways in which he did this was through his excellent examples of service. He held many callings in the church throughout his life. One of his favorite callings was that of ward clerk. “You always know what is happening, with none of the responsibilities,” he always said. He was given many opportunities to serve in that calling and many others. Most recently he was honored to serve in the stake Presidency with other good men. Michael was very active in the scouting program, getting his Eagle as a young man and recently receiving the Silver Beaver award in February of 2005.

Michael had a well defined work ethic he imparted to us as his children. His favorite time of day was 4:00 am, and he loved to pull us out of bed in the summer to do various chores at that time of the day. Daddy loved the outdoors. He loved nature, camping, hiking and basically anything that got him out of the house. He even loved gardening, even though he didn’t have much talent in that area. Our gardens growing up were sad, pitiful little things that looked neglected, despite the attention lavished upon them. There was one time when Daddy planted corn and to the shock of us all the stuff grew and grew and grew and grew. Daddy was thrilled when it produced ears. He plucked them and eagerly boiled himself some corn on the cob. He sat down and took a huge bite of this corn that had grown for him…only to discover that he had unknowingly planted feed corn instead of sweet corn. The next year, he planted sweet corn, only to have the ground squirrels steal all the seed before it even sprouted.

As we grew up, our most frequent family vacation was camping. We often spent time at Mt. Charleston, camping out for the weekend and even whole weeks in the summer. Daddy loved being outside with his family and, despite his scouting experience, Mom swears she was the one to teach him how to camp properly.

Daddy’s favorite time of the year was always Christmas. He would sing Christmas carols year round until finally we had a new rule at our house. Christmas carols are allowed to be played and sung from the day after Thanksgiving until a week after Christmas, oh yeah, and a week in July. Anyone caught at any other time of the year got squirted with water. The day after Thanksgiving was almost the bigger holiday at our house. Blasting Christmas music awakened us and a giddy father surrounded by all the boxes of Christmas decorations we’re to put up that day.

During this time of year, Daddy was able to showcase one of his other great loves, singing. As soon as LaDale and I were old enough to sing, we were knocking on front doors in our neighborhood and singing three songs for others standing in warm houses while we froze outside. We fought over who got to ring the doorbells, which songs we would sing while the people got to the front door and generally had a great time and many wonderful memories. This last year, the whole family gathered and Daddy was able to spend his last Christmas surrounded by his six children and his 12 grandchildren. We all had a wonderful time, even when the fire alarm was accidentally pulled and the fire department showed up to join us.

We are so grateful for the time we were able to spend with Daddy in this life. We know that we will see him again and that he is doing even greater work on the other side of the veil.