Thomas Lepley H’13, an apprentice electrician who rose to the role of director of facilities planning and oversaw construction of the campus athletic center and Science Quad, died Jan. 20 at age 78. A resident of Gambier, he joined Kenyon in 1970 and retired in 2013 after serving the College for 43 years.
Born on June 2, 1945 in Mount Vernon, Lepley worked his way up through the ranks at the College and came to know it better than almost anyone. A 2005 article in the alumni magazine called him “indispensable” and described his role as “something like a chief engineer, in-house consultant, strategist, planner, trouble-shooter, penny-pincher, and general manager all rolled into one.”
An indefatigable supporter of the College, the esteem he received from colleagues was legendary. There’s a story that when former President Robert A. Oden Jr. was leaving Kenyon for his new job at Carleton College in 2002, Joseph G. Nelson, who was vice president for finance at the time, told him there was just one employee he couldn’t try to hire: Lepley.
“Tom Lepley was as competent, dedicated and loyal an employee that Kenyon has ever had,” Nelson said recently, adding that he told Senior Staff that in his opinion, Lepley was Kenyon’s best employee. “And I would add that I was including the people in the room in that assessment.”
Lepley’s family remembers him as a man whose dedication to the College was unquestionable — a man who was always ready to help, on one occasion even sliding down an elevator shaft to free students who were trapped inside during a power outage.
“He loved that campus,” said his wife of 58 years, Shirley, who worked as a secretary in the Maintenance Department. “He got along with professors, he got along with students, he got along with the people in the kitchen. It was just his life. It really was.”
Lepley joined the maintenance department as an apprentice electrician, but was always learning from his talented peers — plumbers, carpenters and others, according to his son, Kurt, a plumber at Kenyon.
“He would pick people's brains. It was just kind of a passion of his to know how things worked,” he said. “If he was in a boiler room working on something electrical and something else was wrong, he could usually figure it out.”
As Lepley took on more responsibility — serving as supervisor of skilled trades, manager of mechanical services, superintendent of buildings and grounds, and clerk of the works — he used his extensive trades knowledge to suggest changes to construction designs to save money or improve efficiency, his family said.
“He was definitely looking out for Kenyon’s best interests,” said Mike Itschner, manager of building maintenance trades.
Lepley considered it his personal responsibility to make sure that no one took advantage of Kenyon and that everything was done right during the construction process, his wife said.
“Tom always said: ‘These are 100-year-buildings,’” she said. “He wanted everything built to last a long, long time.”
Over the years, he was involved with the projects to build Storer Hall, renovate Peirce Hall, construct the Science Quad, and erect his pride and joy, the athletic facility now known as the Lowry Center.
Handy around the house, he enjoyed woodworking and could be found welding, pouring concrete and doing all sorts of other work.
Lepley loved kids — most of all his own grandkids — and relished playing the role of Santa all over Knox County, including the Mount Vernon holiday parade, schools and even the homes of members of the Kenyon community. It was a practice he started when he was just 17, dressing up for his own family, Shirley Lepley said.
“That was a real passion,” she said. “He had a Santa suit made for him.”
Active in the community, he was a member of the Mount Zion Masonic Lodge #9 and South Vernon United Methodist Church, and he served on the board of the building fund for Quarry Chapel in Gambier.
He is survived by his wife, Shirley; his children, Kevin (Joely) Lepley, Kyle (Sharon) Lepley, and Kurt (Kim) Lepley of Gambier; five grandchildren; four great-grandchildren; two brothers and a sister. Funeral services took place on Friday, Jan. 26.