Tim Tupper was introduced into Peoples Temple by his parents who were active temple members. He was adopted into the Jones rainbow family in the late 1960s and was the same age as Stephen Jones. He and Stephen Jones grew up together in the same household and even before the adoption was very close friends. Stephan remembers Tim helping him with some elementary school bullies. He says in his memorial to his brother “Then out of nowhere, Tim came flying from behind my right shoulder, smacking Audi [the bully] square in the chest with the bottom of his tennis-shoed foot, sending him flying into his gang and knocking two more of them to the ground. – “If you’ve got a beef with him, you’ve got a beef with me.”
Tim was very athletic in high school and was considered the star pitcher before being pulled from school to travel to Guyana. He arrived in Guyana on March 29, 1977. In Jonestown, he would escape the harsh living conditions by playing on the basketball team with his brothers and friends. Because of a basketball tournament, he survived the Jonestown incident. Tim lost his wife and daughter in the incident as well as both his adopted family and biological family.
Tim had difficulty absorbing and assimilating back into a normal life after Jonestown. He felt regret for not being able to stop what happened. It was not until the birth of his first child that he felt reprieve. His four children Chelsea, Taylor, Nathan, and Jacob gave him the most closure and solace with what had happened. He passed away from a heart attack on April 20, 2019.
