TENNESSEE

Victims' son recalls parents' love of Smoky Mountains, family

Megan Boehnke
megan.boehnke@knoxnews.com

On Nov. 28 when deadly wildfires whipped through Gatlinburg, John and Marilyn Tegler spoke with both their daughters and their 19-year-old granddaughter.

Sydni Tegler, a college student in Canada studying marketing, talked to her grandfather, a retired businessman, about a presentation she was making. Her grandmother told her the wind was picking up and they could already smell the smoke.

John and Marilyn Tegler perished in the wildfires in Gatlinburg on Monday, Nov. 28, 2016.

“I had lunch with Sydni that day, and she was so happy because grandma said she was so proud of her,” said Scott Tegler, Sydni’s father and John and Marilyn’s son. “I didn’t know anything until I talked to my sister, who sent me a text at 8:30 p.m. asking if I had talked to mom at all that day.”

It wasn’t until Thursday at 5:45 p.m. that Scott Tegler, a fire chief in Woodstock, Ontario, got a call from the Sheriff’s Office confirming what they had suspected. His parents had died in the vacation home in Chalet Village that the family had bought more than two decades ago.

Related: 2 teens charged with arson in Sevier County wildfires

The couple, who were in their early 70s, were among the first of 14 victims identified by the Sevier County Medical Examiner. The fire, which had started in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park before hurricane-force wind gusts sent it down the mountains into the tourist town, also injured more than 175 people and burned more than 2,400 buildings.

John and Marilyn Tegler, along with their dog, perished in the wildfires in Gatlinburg on Monday, Nov. 28, 2016.

“These things, they’re complicated to manage and the answers aren’t always there,” said Tegler, who has had little experience with wildfires himself but is very familiar with house and structure fires.

“I can very easily relate, and I think that’s probably been the most painful part of this whole things – not knowing, and your imagination allows itself to dictate what may have occurred last Monday.

“Trying to understand mom and dad’s pain, and their emotion. I don’t know how to put it into words, but I’ve seen it in house fires. I’ve seen that stuff and it’s quite an ordeal.”

Though his parents are originally from Woodstock, a small city about halfway between Detroit and Toronto, they moved to the Atlanta area with their youngest daughter in the 1990s when John Tegler’s job as vice president for Timberjack, a logging equipment manufacturer, sent them south. Since retiring, the couple would regularly return to Canada in the summers for a month or more at a time, their son said.

Love of Smokies

But their love of the Smoky Mountains goes back decades. The family had been visiting Gatlinburg since Tegler, 49, was a child, he said. He still flies a University of Tennessee flag in front of his home in Canada. He didn't attend the school.

After staying in a lodge on the main drag for years, the family bought a second home in the Chalet Village in the 1990s, he said.

“It’s the beauty of the mountains and the serenity of the area,” Tegler said of what drew his parents to Tennessee. “They love the mountains. They love the trees. When they built their home, it was their escape. It was peaceful, it was quiet; they very rarely go down to Pigeon Forge. They took everything they needed and would just go for a drive.”

John Tegler was a private man, fiercely protective of his family and respected by his colleagues. He was firm, but fair. Even in his decade of retirement, he still would send his family articles on finance at least once a week and would study stocks in front of three computer monitors set up in their basement in Peachtree City.

He had other hobbies, too, including construction, woodworking, golf, hockey and football. He would offer his son advice on the management side of his job in the fire service.

“He was my hero,” Tegler said. “Hopefully every child says that about their parents, but for me, the guy couldn’t do anything wrong.”

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When Scott Tegler and his daughter would make the 13-hour drive from Ontario to Georgia, sometimes arriving in the early morning hours, his parents would get out of bed and greet them in the kitchen.

“Mom is just a mom,” Tegler said. “She’s the glue, like a lot of moms are. She would do anything for any of her children, her grandchildren – for anyone in the family – to hold us together."

Marilyn Tegler was often in the kitchen, or bargain shopping, stocking the home with discounted toilet paper and cleaning products. She took joy in watching her husband, family and grandchildren do the things they loved most, her son said. The couple doted over their animals, a dachshund named Tucker, and two cats. The dog died in the fire.

In addition to their son, the Teglers are survived by their daughters Jessica Tegler, and Marnie LaPointe; their son-in-law, Dave LaPointe; and grandchildren Sydni Tegler, Clayton LaPointe, 15, and Kinlee LaPointe, 10.

Arrangements are being made for a funeral in Canada, Scott Tegler said.

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