Coman Leonard Sproles returned to his Heavenly Father and joined his daughter Janet on February 14, 2008.

Coman was born in Bluefield, Mercer, West Virginia, on September 13, 1925, to Coscie Leonard and Delilah Elizabeth Williams Sproles. Bluefield is a small city at the southern tip of the state straddling the Virginia/West Virginia line. His great grandfather fought in the Confederate Army. It's said that folks from there are "slow talkers and slow doers; they just plod on like an old mule."

Coman's father was a carpenter and found work hard to come by during the depression, so the family moved to Washington, D.C., when Coman was three. His father died about a dozen years later. At age 17, Coman got a job making $1. 00 and hour in an ironworks, manufacturing stairways for Liberty ships, the World War II transports. At 18 he was drafted into the Army, assigned to the Air Corps and flew 350 hours with a combat crew, patrolling for submarines along the U. S. east coast.

His next assignment was on Attu, the westernmost of the Aleutian Islands. Here he maintained propellers, or as he likes to put it, "I was tops at fixing props." Most important for his eventual career, a friend taught him to operate heavy equipment. Honorably discharged in 1945, Coman quickly found employment as an equipment operator, working on hundreds of projects in the District of Columbia and nearby Maryland. He became proficient with bulldozers, cranes, tractors, shovels, and other equipment, in projects involving highways, large buildings, streets, tree removal, grading, and even filling in a quarry.

A life-threatening event occurred at the quarry when a large section of overburden at the edge gave way and dropped 100 feet to the bottom. Coman barely got the dozer to safety in time. The latter part of his working life was spent with a sanitation commission, where he was responsible for water and sewer systems. This included valve maintenance on water tanks and on water lines up to 120" in diameter.

In 1947, he and Sadie Gifford Miller were married. They had known each other since they attended school together several years earlier in Spring Lake Park, near Rockville, Maryland.

While in the Army, Coman had read the Bible through eight times, leaving him dissatisfied with any church he knew about. One day he saw an article in the Washington Post about the Book of Mormon, borrowed a copy and began to read it. Shortly thereafter, he received the discussions from two sister missionaries, and was baptized in 1969. As a new member he tried to do things "by the book," including Family Home Evening. A few months later he baptized Sadie.

His diligence as a new member led to his being called as ward clerk, then stake clerk, and in 1984, as a Patriarch. He served as a worker in the Washington Temple for 12 years, Sadie for a slightly shorter period. The couple moved to Logan in 1986, where Coman had further duty as a Patriarch for the University 3rd Stake for eight years.

Coman and Sadie have three children: Bonnie Messina (Jerome), of Frederick Maryland; Janet Kesling (deceased) (Willard); and Mark Coman Sproles (Margaret), of Littlestown, Pennsylvania. They include in their posterity four grandchildren, and four step-grandchildren.

Coman has led an active and very physical life, with remarkable spiritual highlights and a long trail of service.

Funeral services will be held in the Foothill First Ward chapel, 1450 East 1500 North, on Tuesday, February 19, 2008, at 10 a.m. A viewing will be held the at the church from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. There will be military honors following the service at the Logan City Cemetery.

Condolences and memories may be shared with the family at Allen Mortuaries.

Arrangements under the direction of Allen Mortuary of North Logan.

Father So long ago we chose to further our progression; And sometimes the way this world goes, It makes us feel like we are regressin'. In the Spirit World I must have really been smart -F or down here I got off to a good start, To be with a spirit so strong on the side of right -day and night. In the world there are prophets, teachers, preachers and men of might; But in my eyes my Dad could make the Devil tremble with fright. I love you, Dad.

Mark Coman Sproles