Industry Loses a Legend: Vern Toblan

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August 25, 2014

VernToblanMIDDLETOWN, DE—Vern Toblan, longtime executive director of industry fraternity Pi Chi Omega, died in his sleep on Saturday, Aug. 23. He was 84. At his side were son Blair, daughter Brenna, cousin and business partner Heidi Ross and her daughter Katherine Ross, and Toblan’s beloved dog Frannie. He also leaves behind his brother Edi, sister Margrit, and grandchildren Ethan and Logan. 

According to his published obituary, Toblan was born “in Zurich, Switzerland on March 5, 1930, the son of the late Eduard and Lina Lenzin Hughentobler. He attended school in Strickhoff in Switzerland where he studied agriculture. He came to Canada in the early 1950s and there worked in various jobs, including farmhand, ambulance driver and milkman. While teaching dance at the Arthur Murray Dance Studio in Regina, Saskatchewan, he met his wife of many years, Kathleen Toblan (nee Lannan, who precedes him in death). He later put his earlier education to work in the chemical industry, providing knowledge and training to many in the fields of herbicides and pesticides.”

“Vern was an instrumental leader within the pest management industry,” notes Kim Kelley-Tunis, director, technical services for the Rollins Training and Technical Center in Atlanta and president of Pi Chi Omega. “His absence will be felt by all those whose lives he touched.”

On Thursday, Aug. 28. friends and family are invited to an informal gathering to celebrate his life at the Embassy Suites Newark-Wilmington South, 654 South College Ave., Newark, DE 19713 from 3 to 5 p.m. At his request, in lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and mailed to R.T. Foard & Jones Funeral Home, 122 West Main St., Newark, DE 19711.

In an emailed announcement to family and friends, Brenna Toblan concluded, “What he would want would be for all of you to go out and have a good meal, and maybe raise a glass of wine to his memory.”

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