Chane Eplin Obituary

We are sad to announce the passing of Chane Lee Eplin of Tallahassee, FL. Chane was born in Akron, OH to Evelyn and Ira Eplin on July 23^rd, 1961. On December 24^th, 1983, Chane married Donna Moore. Chane showed the world how to love. He was a man of many titles: husband, friend, youth pastor, teacher, pastor, twin, professor, Sunday school teacher, mentor, counselor, confidant, encourager, daddy, and “The Big Cheese”. His daughters and wife wanted to add that he was the best snuggler ever. He was known for being selfless and full of life. You could ask anyone who knew him, and they would say that to know him was to love him. His family has had many people tell them that he was the nicest person they had ever met. Even when he just looked at people, they could tell he cared about them.

Chane acquired a B.A. in Secondary Education-English from Southeastern University and an M.A. in Applied Linguistics/English as a Second Language from the University of South Florida. He made quite a difference over the years throughout his career as a high school teacher, a pastor, an English language teacher, a professor at various colleges, the ESOL Director for Polk County, and eventually as the Bureau Chief of ESOL for the state of Florida advocating for English Language Learners. Chane was friendly to people everywhere he went - Target, Home Depot, restaurants, everywhere. He treated each person in the building with the utmost respect, regardless of who they were. Chane had a special gift for accepting and welcoming people from other countries and cultures especially. His whole career was dedicated to helping English Language Learners succeed. He instilled that kind of unconditional love into his children, and he poured it onto everyone who knew him. 

He had a big passion for his job, he loved his work and the people that he worked with. He was commonly known for saying, “Oh Donna, you would just love her!” or “You would love him, Donna!” regarding a lot of his co-workers and colleagues. He had that mentality with almost everyone he knew. He never met anybody that he did not absolutely love. When he got words of affirmation from people it meant the world to him. One of his favorite things to do was to share a positive text or an email from a colleague, often with tears in his eyes from how much it meant to him. He was so proud of his work and he was so passionate about making a difference in the lives of all types of students. He loved everything he did in his entire career. He was very fulfilled in it. He was able to love and care for others throughout his it and he loved that. Chane impacted the world powerfully with his passion for helping people from all walks of life. When Chane was not at work, you could always find him spending time with his wife, five daughters, mother, and grandson. He supported everything they did. He was at every single ball game, every performance, and every significant moment of his family’s lives. To him, his family was the most important thing. Through the years he enjoyed playing board games with them, teaching them sports like soccer and basketball, going on jogs, or on bike rides with them to the hardware store, and watching Star Wars, LOTR or other fun action films together piled into the bed. He enjoyed reading aloud to us and playing cards together. Recently, he loved playing make-believe with his grandson. He also loved disc golfing with his family and even made a hole-in-one on hole #12 at Tom Brown Disc Golf course in Tallahassee!

As is evident, the biggest foundation in Chane’s life was his family. He always made sure he took care of them. No matter what happened, Chane always took the high road and never passed judgment on anyone. He knew there were three sides to every situation, and he instilled that kind of thinking in his daughters. He was slow to condemn and saw the good in everyone. He was stubborn and hard-working in the sense that he never stopped taking care of his daughters until the last day. He was willing to drive many miles at the sacrifice of himself to help them anytime. Even in the end when he was having heart problems and might need to go to the hospital, he offered to help fix one of his daughter’s cars. As you might expect, everyone told him, no, but this was just how much he loved helping them. All five of his daughters agree that he would be willing to move heaven and earth to get there if one of them was in need.

He loved people with his heart on his sleeve. Every time he left the house he told his family, "Call me if you need me, call me if you want to." He was the perfect mix of silly and deeply loving. He was a goofy dad, so much fun and full of life. He would grab his daughters’ jacket strings and throw them up into the air repeatedly to tease them, or give them wet willies unexpectedly, and they loved it. His eyes glinted with laughter at every turn, bringing out smiles everywhere he went. He had the kindest eyes anyone has ever seen. He was the happiest, silliest, most boisterous, and friendliest man they have ever known.

Chane treated his nieces and nephews as if they were his own children. He loved hosting game nights with Donna with the girl’s friends. He treated everyone in the home as his own family, and they felt it. He saw them the same way he saw his own children. Donna said that even when talking about retirement years together and what he wanted to do, it was all about doing fun things with the family. He did not have any dreams for fun retirement things to do that were for him. Everything he spoke of had to do with being with his children or grandchildren. His devotion to Donna was unparalleled. She put it this way, “There is not a man on this earth who has loved his wife more completely than Chane has loved me. His devotion to me and commitment to our relationship was absolutely incredible. I cherish every sweet moment we had together, it won’t be the same without him.”

His entire life was about caring for others. He cared about the world and the mission field. His wife Donna fell in love with him for his Pastor's heart and she has always told him that. She knew when she was in the fifth grade, that she was going to marry a Pastor. His whole life, he has been like a pastor and treated people like they were his own. He shepherded and took care of the people in his life, whether it was his students, colleagues, family, friends, or people who worked alongside him. He taught his daughters to love and trust in the Lord with all of their hearts. Chane was passionate about souls being won for the Lord. He told his daughters that no one is too far gone to come back to the Lord. If you would like to pray with someone to accept Christ into your heart as your Lord and Savior, email his daughter Marlene at mrs.marlene.bishop@gmail.com to discuss it further.

Chane died at age 60 on June 14th, 2022 of a ruptured aneurysm. Born in Akron, OH, he was survived by his wife: Donna Eplin; his five daughters: Marlene Bishop, Paige Eplin, Sophia Eplin, Raquel Eplin, Alessandra Eplin; his mother: Evelyn Eplin; his twin brother: Randal Eplin; his grandson: Isaiah Bishop; his sister-in-law: Lori Eplin; his nieces: Destyni Rivera, Lindsay Koprivica, Elise Hatton; his nephews: Grant Eplin and Jadon Eplin; and his son-in-law David Bishop.

The funeral will be at Freedom Church on June 18, 2022, at 2801 Thomasville Rd, Tallahassee, FL 32308. Visitation: 10 am, Service: 11 am. Online streaming information will be posted on Facebook later this week. Chane’s family would love to have you all join them in celebrating his wonderful, inspiring life.