Eston kid to business manager to priesthood

By Joan Janzen

Residents from Eston may remember Kevin Tumback, who grew up on a farm near Eston. He recently shared his journey from farm boy to the present when he is celebrating twenty-five years of priesthood. His parents, Andrew (Tiny) and Audrey Tumback, moved from the farm to Eston in 1981, where Audrey bought a flower shop. Kevin’s dad passed away in 2015, and his mom now resides in Humboldt. His siblings are in Alberta, Saskatchewan, BC and overseas.

Kevin was the second of seven children born to Andrew and Audrey on May 22, 1957. The following are excerpts from Kevin’s personal account of his journey from farm kid to business manager to priesthood.

Father Kevin Tumback grew up in Eston, Saskatchewan and is celebrating 25 years in the priesthood.

As a young child, my grandmother prayed that my brother and I might become priests, but Gramma passed away when I was about ten years of age, and so the encouragement stopped. As a teenager, I thought about being a priest again, but the life of a priest did not seem that appealing - people can be very nasty to the priest. So, I chose a different route.

In 1975, I entered the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon Campus and studied Engineering for one year, long enough to discover that it was not my profession in life. Still, the experience was profound in many ways and offered new ways of thinking and appreciation for architecture and design.

After taking a year off, I returned to study at Medicine Hat College. College was much cheaper than university and so I studied there for two years before transferring to the University of Calgary to finish a Bachelor of Commerce in Marketing and Personnel in 1981.

After graduation, I worked for Hudson Bay, a marketing firm, as a buyer, Altitude Publishing as their Manager of Sales, then into the accounting field where I landed a position with the Banff International Hotel as their Controller and shortly thereafter as the General Manager.

In 1990, I travelled through Europe for six weeks. During a stop in Rome, I attended the Wednesday gathering with Pope John Paul II. At the close of the Pope’s address, Pope John Paul II walked down and greeted a number of people; I was one of the lucky ones to meet and talk with him. After Pope John Paul II asked a few questions, he placed his hands on my head and prayed for me. I was told later the prayer was for me to discern my vocation in life, which was strange to me as I was the general manager of a large hotel. I thought I had my vocation figured out.

Returning to Banff, I found myself reflecting more and more on what had happened, especially as Pope John Paul II only talked to one more person after me and left early as he was tired from his latest trip. My involvement in the church had always been there and I shared my experience with the pastor, Fr. Tom Garvey. He became a sounding board for my questions and concerns.

One concern was some people can be very mean to the priest, but I had discovered in the business world, people are not nice to the manager, to sales staff, to volunteers. Some people are just not nice. Years later Bishop Henry offered me this advice: “Grow a thicker skin”.

In the early 1990s I was placed on the Finance Committee for a synod in the Diocese of Calgary. This resulted in many trips to Calgary. One evening, while staying with my brother in Calgary, he looked at me and said, “Kevin, you’re doing so much for the church, why don’t you just sign up?”

So, in Lent of 1991, I applied to the diocese to go to the seminary to discover if God was calling me to be a priest, and for some reason Bishop Paul accepted me. Seminary was challenging, but fascinating. Still, the greatest challenge of all was that I did not fit in. I was older than most of those with whom I was studying, and business and theology don’t mix in many minds.

Still in the midst of all of this, a good friend, said something profound that has stayed with me, “What is the deepest desire of your heart? Follow it.” Waking up in the middle of the night I would get up and write what was running through my head and then go back to sleep, a very peaceful sleep.

Bishop Paul encouraged me to sign up for the Clinical Pastoral Education at Foothills Hospital. I completed a year of residency at Foothills and then got a position with the Calgary Catholic School Board as a chaplain. I was ordained to the diaconate on March 17, 1999, and ordained to the priesthood June 29, 1999.

At that time, Kevin was 42 years old. Since then, he has had the opportunity to lead numerous pilgrimages with groups of 12 to 50 to Italy, France, Spain, Germany, and the Holy Land. He spent twelve years in Calgary before he was sent to All Saints Parish in Lethbridge.

Father Kevin continued by writing, “When I was working in the business world, my desire was to retire at 55. On May 22, 2012, at the age of 55, Bishop Henry sent me to the retirement centre of southern Alberta. It was just for a few years to determine if a future direction for the parish could be found, and the golfing is good. Twelve years later, I am still there.”