Daniel Leon Stone

Daniel Leon Stone rolled his way into the world on an unseasonably warm Autumn morning, October 18, 1963, to Ival & Jewell (Pevley) Stone in Beech Grove, IN as the fourth of five beloved gems: David, Cynthia, Donald, and eventually Constance.

Danny, as he was known then, spent his formative years following in the footsteps of his grandfather, Oscar. He learned the value of a rock-solid work ethic while observing his Grandpa Oscar perform janitorial duties in the halls and classrooms of Southport Middle School during evenings in the late 1960’s, where Dan would later cause a small explosion during chemistry class when he attended as a student himself. Grandpa Stone inspired a lifelong love of nature in Danny, and he would often be found by his grandpa’s side tending gardens, chasing farm animals, and angling at Grandpa’s favorite fishing holes. Dan’s outdoorsman nature continued to develop as his father gave him lessons on the art of mushroom hunting in parks and forests, a skill Dan later made sure to lovingly pass along to his own children. Dan reminisced often about visiting his Grandma Stephens and family in the hollers of Casey County, Kentucky, and fishing the massive waters of Kentucky Lake while on vacations with his family.

Dan grew up while sheep still grazed along the corner of Southport Rd and SR-135 in Indianapolis, creating adventure with his siblings among the trees of Penn’s Woods, biking alone to Brown County down SR-135, returning home the same way all in a single day, and learning how to embody a true Boy Scout while he endeared himself to the neighborhood pets and elders of Linden Wood. Danny spent every moment he could in the great outdoors, spelunking in southern Indiana sink holes and caves, climbing and felling trees in the woods across from his childhood home, and getting into all sorts of shenanigans with friends in his VW Scirocco. He greatly enjoyed gold panning, rock and gem hunting, finding and tasting different honeys, and driving through the mountains out West in his prized Toyota Land Cruiser.

He met his first wife and mother of his children, Cheryl Hawn, at Burkhart Elementary school, where the foreshadow of their future came in the way of a surprise kiss she pecked on him one day before they lost touch. Ever a hard worker, he opened and closed for a local pizzeria as a teenage student at Perry Meridian High School, where he graduated in 1982. With his restaurant experience, Dan went on to assist with the grand opening of Chi Chi’s in Greenwood, IN in 1983 and continued his deliciously spicy work there for a few years. Having a strong affinity for math and science, Dan left Chi Chi’s to forge his own path in the trades, becoming an Apprentice Electrician for Skiles Electric, where he continued to work intermittently until 2013.

Cheryl and Dan reconnected after she popped into the local Kocolene and chatted him up as he tended the register, sparking romance and pulling the strings of fate. However, Dan’s curiosity and love of the natural world was an ever-present tug on his heart; it ultimately prompted Dan to head West to Montana in mid-September 1984 on his two stroke Honda motorcycle, aiming to try his luck in the sapphire mines and continue West as far as he could go. He said goodbye to Cheryl and began his trek to the Wild, Wild West. The onset of a sudden blizzard in North Dakota forced him to acknowledge he was ill-prepared to weather the rugged Northern winter on his motorcycle, thus he turned around and headed back home to Indiana in mid-October. This change of plans was in fact fate in action, leading him to reconcile with and marry Cheryl, with whom he shares three daughters: Christina, Catherine, and Colleen. Having lucked out while searching for stones and gems in Montana, he brought back with him a few prized raw sapphires and garnets. The nicest of Dan’s sapphires became an enduring symbol of love in its permanent placement in Cheryl’s engagement band. Dan’s rambling spirit kept him restless and made it difficult for him to settle down, thus Dan and Cheryl’s story transitioned to co-parenting, reorganizing their family dynamic. Cheryl married Bob Boekankamp and Dan later married Autumn Birch, with whom he shared more than 16 years of life and adventures. While it was difficult at times to obtain balance, this extension of presence encompassed their daughters with well-rounded knowledge, guidance, and love. For the last several years, the family peacefully came together to spend holidays and important events together. We are so thankful for those memories.

Over the years, Dan performed a multitude of vocations. Dan combined his acquired electrical skills, love of chemistry and physics, and vast ambition to begin his own electrical contracting company, Alltech. He built, wired, and installed billboards across much of the Midwest for over 20 years. If you’ve driven on any interstate and most state highways in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, and Illinois, you have seen his work. Dan packed his daughters into his black, single cab, ladder-adorned Chevy Silverado 1500 4x4 and took them along on many of his work-related adventures. He shared with them incredible experiences, historic sites, and natural wonders. When traveling without the girls, Dan would often return to regale them of his brushes with danger. His stories included an electrocution or two which occurred while changing bulbs and re-wiring light ballasts up to 120 feet in the air, nearby lightning strikes and intense storms, observing Copperheads and Water Moccasins slithering near his vehicle and work equipment, bucket trucks tipping, catching himself on a fall from a catwalk, and many other brushes with fate’s final destination.

Dan retired from Alltech in the mid-2000s, transitioning to local jobs which still allowed him to soothe his restless spirit. From delivering pizzas at Pizza Hut & Marcos, to selling restaurant cleaning chemicals for Auto-Chlor, to transporting irrigation supplies at Automatic Supply, to delivering craft Ash & Elm ciders enjoyed at establishments across Indiana, Dan always found ways to stay on the move and explore the world around him.

For the last 10 years, Dan took his interests in a new direction and installed headstones and memorial monuments for Pinna Monuments in Indianapolis. He felt called to handle the tender and tough task of delivering, retrieving, repairing, and setting massive headstones. It is estimated he installed roughly 3000 monuments for loved ones in Ohio, Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky. Dan took immense pride in his work. He recognized the importance of honoring friends and families coming together to experience the profound love and pain of loss.

Dan’s work often allowed him to connect with people visiting the graves of their loved ones. During one of his final installations at College Corner Cemetery in August 2025, Dan made a chance connection. He noticed a lone lady sitting nearby, Linda (Dunaway) Byrd, and approached her to offer fresh produce acquired from a roadside market.

Dan was enamored by Linda, who truly inspired him to live life to the fullest, look forward to the future, and help him put a reinvigorated pep in his step. Linda’s love, companionship, and acceptance of Dan’s eccentricities was just what he needed, and he was an answered prayer to her. Dan recently put down new roots in cultivating love and legacy at his new home, Linda’s rolling property in the foothills of southern Ohio, lovingly termed ByrdStone Ranch. Always an active man and hard worker, he was supervising and running a crew for Al-Joe’s, a large lawncare company in Hamilton, Ohio, within 3 months of starting. He had new friends in the horses next door, neighbors around town, and birds and insects who flitted around the yard. He was eager to once again sport with the fish in his trusty aluminum canoe, his new Ohio fishing license and his collection of fishing poles rigged and ready.

Dan began tackling items on his bucket list and meticulously cultivated the first garden he sought to grow since his kids were kids. Always a man to give his all, he planted 40 pumpkin vines among several rows of tomatoes, cucumbers, various squash and peppers, and three types of sweet corn he would eat right off the stalk. He also started a pollinator garden of poppies, roses, wildflowers, zinnias, marigolds, and sunflowers to draw in the local garden friends for hearty snacks. He was happy to feed everyone around, including the animals who now bed down in this safe haven. He and Linda were growing wheelbarrows worth of produce they couldn’t eat fast enough, so they began sending the majority with her to the local food pantry she volunteers at. Dan’s family and friends are ever so grateful for their community’s willingness to step up and care for his garden and continue his last labor of love through his final season on Earth.

Following a beautiful day spent exploring the area around his new home, working in his garden, and watching the wildlife with Linda from the back porch, Dan unexpectedly passed on to the next realm the evening of July 3, 2026, in Hamilton, OH. His friends and family will celebrate his memory with a public calling Sunday, July 26, 2026 at 1:00 pm at Brown Dawson Flick Funeral Home on Millville Avenue in Hamilton, OH. A funeral service will immediately follow at 2:00 pm. 

“Pappy” Dan Stone is preceded in death by his parents, grandparents, and most aunts and uncles, as well as his best friend Gary Jones, partner Linda Skropits, and his beloved pets. Dan is survived by his partner Linda Byrd; siblings: Dave (Eileen), Cindy (Billy), Don (Jacki), and Connie (Doug); his three daughters: Christina (Chris), Catherine, and Colleen (Adam); and his three granddaughters: Kendra, Linnea, and Evelyn; as well as several aunts, cousins, nieces, nephews, and friends far and wide.

Thanks to Dan, his girls know and enjoy a true Morel and morals; have experienced fishing in crystal clear quarries; walked across brittle, shimmery shale while gold panning in shallow streams in Tennessee, Georgia, and Montana; know to make noise in the woods to ward off a would-be angry bear, to keep their eyes open near streams and on trails for snakes and moose, and to keep away from stinging nettle and poison ivy. Dan took his girls to the peaks of mountains and the sides of cliffs, on bucket trucks and billboard platforms, across natural bridges, along winding creeks, through forests, and into the earth to view underground rivers and wildlife, ensuring they knew the difference between stalactites and stalagmites and fostering their exploration of the world without fear. He taught them how to swish the shot in the game of H-O-R-S-E, how to catch and throw a football like a pro, how to take a hefty frog to the arm, and how to knock a fool in the kidney if they got too rowdy. Dan made sure his girls burned hundreds of laps on the bike trails of Turkey Run, the gravelly roads of Country Squire Lakes in North Vernon, Indiana, and all over their multigenerational neighborhood. He brought them friendly turtles, dogs, and cats rescued from the roads he traveled and shelters he found along the way. He took them to explore old trains, geological museums, childhood homes of Presidents and explorers. He let them pretend they were lost in the rain forest of his home-grown field of giant sunflowers, sweet corn, and pumpkins. He taught them anger is required to dig holes in the hard Earth, they really should wear pants and a hard hat when working on certain tasks inside and out, to always wear shoes in the basement, and chainsaws will cut their arms and legs off without hesitation. He taught them to enjoy roller coasters, to navigate winding roads in a fast car, to always pack extra pairs of undies, and to never stop seeking their dreams. A spiritual and Godly man, he encouraged them to keep an open mind and raised his daughters to enjoy the goodness and bounty of Christmastime all year round, and most definitely so in July. Finally, he ensured they knew he will always be there for those he loves.

Dan left this plane before he could complete all the tasks on his bucket list and enjoy all the fruits of his labor, but he planted the seeds of his legacy to live on in all who knew and loved him and in all those he loved, whether they knew him or not. 

Just a honey bear in disguise and ever a honey connoisseur, Dan would appreciate donations to the Beekeepers of Indiana, the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, or the Marion-Grant County Humane Society in Marion, IN, in lieu of funeral flowers. He would also appreciate love and prayers for those he leaves to mourn his loss, and that you please tell the bees that he is gone. 

In alignment with our father’s nature, this meandering obituary touched on only a small fraction of the many profound impacts our father had on our lives and the lives of those he loved.

With love and gratitude,

Christina, Catherine, and Colleen Stone