Obituary - William "Bill" E. Lumpkin

William “Bill” E. Lumpkin, 83, of Great Falls, a U.S. Marine who served during the Korean War, passed away on Monday, July 13, 2015.

Bill was a native Montanan. He spent 32 years in the education and the criminal justice fields before retiring in Great Falls in 1991.

A memorial service will be held later this summer at St. Jude Thaddeus Church in Havre, Montana, followed by burial of ashes at the Calvary Cemetery in Havre.

Schnider Funeral Home is handling the arrangements. Cremation has taken place.

Bill was born in Havre on March 5, 1932, to John and Mary Lumpkin. His early education was at St. Jude Thaddeus elementary school in Havre and Havre High School.

After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Korean War, 1951-1953, Bill attended Seattle University where he earned a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts in 1957. He taught English to seventh- and eighth- graders and at the secondary level from 1959-1965 in Flaxville, and during the same period taught college extension courses in American and British literature in Scobey for Northern Montana College. Then he spent 1965-1968 as a junior high and high school counselor at Glasgow High School. He served as superintendent of schools in Roosevelt County from 1984-1985.

While in the education field, Lumpkin was elected justice of the peace for Daniels County in 1964.

In 1968, Bill began what would result in a 23-year career in the criminal justice/corrections field. First, he served as a juvenile parole office with the Department of Corrections, based in Great Falls, from 1968 to 1971. From 1972 to 1986 he was a part-time instructor in criminal justice at Fort Peck Community College. From 1971 to 1991, he was chief probation officer in the 15th Judicial District in Northeastern Montana.

While in this position, Bill in 1976 registered at the then-College of Great Falls in the first master’s program and he received his Master of Human Services degree in 1979.

Bill once said that his successful and satisfying careers in education and corrections “resulted from being in the right places at the right times and talking to the right people.”

When he retired in 1991, he indulged frequently in his avocation of gourmet cooking, often sharing his favorite recipes with the Great Falls Tribune readers of the Wednesday food section.

Bill is survived by his brother, Thomas Lumpkin of Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Bill was preceded in death by his parents, John Sidney and Mary Julia Lumpkin; sisters, Mary Lou Williamson of Colorado, and Betty Jane Kansas; and brother, John “Jack” of Chicago.

Indian Prayer for William E. “Indian Bill” Lumpkin:

Do not stand at my grave and weep

I am not there. I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow.

I am the diamond glint on snow.

I am the sunlight on ripened grain.

I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you wake in the morning hush

I am the swift, uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circling flight.

I am the soft starlight at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry.

I am not there.  I did not die.  

(by Mary Elizabeth Frye, 1932)