Crossville, TN - Michael Vernon Stump, 78, passed away at his home in Crossville on Aug. 21, 2025. Mike was born Sept. 1, 1946, in Nappanee, IN. Upon graduating from high school, he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Forestry from Purdue University. After graduating in 1969, he took a job with Inland Container, a corrugated box manufacturer, in New Johnsonville, TN, where he was employed as a procurement forester. Soon after, he met his future wife, Donna Gant Stump. They were married in Dickson, TN, on Sept. 2, 1972.

Mike obtained a surveying license from the state of Tennessee in 1974. The energy crisis of the 1970s made mining economically feasible again, so Mike relocated to Crossville with his family in 1976 to survey potential mining sites. After working in the mining industry, he took a job with Tare, Inc., an engineering firm in Crossville, where he worked as a surveyor and draftsman.

In 1982, he started his own surveying business, Mike Stump & Associates, which he continued to run for the next 40+ years. He completed hundreds of surveys in Cumberland and surrounding counties and was well known in both his professional community and among his clients as an excellent surveyor. He served as an active member of Tennessee Association of Professional Surveyors in both the state, local and Upper Cumberland Chapter. Mike was dedicated to his family and friends and loved to fly fish in the creeks and streams of East Tennessee and beyond. He learned fly-tying as a teenager and tying flies was one of his most enjoyable lifelong hobbies. Mike is preceded in death by his loving wife, Donna, who passed April 15, 2025, his parents, Robert Ernest Stump and Gloria Ann DeVaux and a half-brother, Todd Stump. Mike is survived by his stepsons, William H. (Charlene) Gwin IV and Lafayette (Laura) Gwin and grandchildren, Natalie Michele Gwin, Isaac Sebastian Gwin, Chelsea Gwin, and Dylan (Joss) Gwin as well as four great-grandchildren. He also is also survived by his sisters, Bonnie Martin and Lynne DeVaux; and by Jeffrey Michael Winter, a son from a previous marriage. Memorial contributions in Mike Stump's name may be made to Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning.