Warren Earl Stutsman, "Earl the Pearl," 85, of Greenwood, IN met his Lord and Savior on Saturday, January 10, 2026, after a long battle with heart failure and Parkinson's.

Born on the farm in Deputy, Indiana, he was hand-milking cows by age five and farmed daily with his dad until age 21. He talked fondly of the day the new red FARMALL 1954 Super M-TA tractor got delivered to the farm. He loved that tractor so much that he had it restored and drove it in the Indiana State Fair tractor parade two years in a row.

Earl respected the godly farming heritage given to him by his parents; however, God was calling him to a life of service in business and in church. It was his beautiful wife of over 60 years, Joy Ann, who was influential in his decision to attend Bob Jones University, where he majored in accounting and took all the Bible courses he could. They married on August 18, 1962, and raised two daughters in a close-knit Christian home.

He always said God gave him a deep love for the game of basketball. Earl excelled in the sport and played for Deputy High School in many small gyms across southern Indiana under his favorite coach Vernon Wynn. He was the leading scorer in all of Jefferson County township schools during the 1957-58 season. His ability to recount details and stats of so many of those games was incredible. Of course, HOOSIERS was his favorite movie.

Earl had always wanted to play college basketball. While at BJU, along with his brother-in-law, Dr. Bob Robinson, he was able to coach and play on two championship teams, being voted Most Valuable Player at the end of his senior year in1966. These games were some of the best highlights of Earl's life and he loved to reminisce about them over and over again.

Following graduation, Earl moved his family to Indianapolis to work downtown for the Arthur Anderson CPA firm.  A man of deep Christian faith, he and Joy became intricately involved at the Indianapolis Baptist Temple which was running 3000 weekly attendees at the time. Along with multiple roles of leadership in the church, Earl also became head of the accounting department for several years.

Adding to Earl's best basketball memories, he was honored to play on the Baptist Temple church league team in the late 60's and 70's with All State players Howard Dardeen and Jim Cummings, and be coached by top-ranked high school coach, Jim Troyer. These players and their families became wonderful life-long friends.

In 1977, Earl decided to pursue a real estate career and became one of F.C. Tucker's leading sales people, earning the 1983 MIBOR Sales Associate of the Year / South Division title. However, high interest rates in the 80's made it nearly impossible to sell houses. Thus, Earl opened the first Raymond James Financial Services office in the Indianapolis area where he finished his successful career in 2007 as a Financial Advisor, CFP.

Throughout Earl's full schedule, he kept his priority of service to the Lord by teaching Sunday School for decades: first at the Junior High level at Indpls. Baptist Temple, as well as the Harvesters adult class at Emmanuel Baptist, and the senior adults at Victory Baptist Church. His dedication to studying God's word and delivering lessons that helped his listeners understand the Bible was his calling.

If you knew Earl, you would probably think of his love for Joy and his girls, popcorn, cows and pigs, red tractors, ice cream, listening to Gaither gospel music, his enthusiasm for high school basketball, his loyalty to IU and Butler basketball, and his joy of being "GrandPop" to his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He was a highly respected family man of spiritual and business integrity who will be greatly missed.

Earl's legacy continues through his two devoted daughters: Jennifer Booker [Ed], Greenwood, and Janelle Young [Jon], Indianapolis, 4 faithful grandchildren: Stacy Robinson [Jordan], Lauren Lenox [Ben], Stephen Booker, Lance Young [Shelby], 7 great-grandchildren: Lydia, Lucy, Lana Lenox, Gracie, Ryker, Reagan Young, Miles Robinson; and his sister Shirley Eversole [Jim] of Columbus.

Earl was preceded in death by the love of his life, Joy Ann Stutsman, and parents Warren and Marie (Howell) Stutsman.

Pastor Mark Felber will conduct a service to honor Earl's life on Saturday, January 17, 2026 at 2pm, at Victory Baptist Church, 1340 E Tracy Road in Whiteland, IN and will be live-streamed at https://youtube.com/@victorybaptistchurchofwhit1661?si=yBncoETRkFD_aKg2 Visitation will be from 11am until service time at the church. Burial will be at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Greenwood, IN.

Memorial contributions may be made to Victory Baptist Church, 1340 E. Tracy Rd, Whiteland, IN, 46184 Designate: Missionaries.  Swartz Family Community Mortuary and Memorial Center, 300 South U.S. 31 (Morton Street) in Franklin, IN is handling the arrangements.

Online condolences may be sent to the family at www.swartzmortuary.com.  Information 317-738-0202.