Richard C. "Dick" Phillips 1949 - 2025

Richard C. “Dick” Phillips was born July 3, 1949, to Veva and Elmer Phillips in Portland, Oregon. His father was a longshoreman. His mother was a homemaker who had worked in a factory during World War II making bomb fuses, and later worked part-time sewing upholstery cushion covers.

His family lived in Milwaukie, Oregon. He graduated from Milwaukie High School and attended Portland State University. While in high school, he became a photographer and worked on the school newspaper and yearbook. His photography skills led him to a part-time job at the local paper, The Milwaukie Review. That part-time job led him to his lifelong career as a circulation manager, a grumpy bundle chaser, as one of his co-workers used to tease him about his job. He worked in circulation for The Milwaukie Review, The Salem Statesman-Journal in Newport as a district circulation manager, The McMinnville News-Register, The Daily Astorian, and then he returned to the McMinnville News-Register.

At one point, he made a lateral shift to the web printing division of the McMinnville newspaper and worked at Oregon Lithoprint, Inc. At OLI, he was Mailing and Distribution Manager, a job where he chased the customers’ bundles of mail and printed jobs. He excelled at the logistics of printing and distribution. Ocean-going container loads of printed catalogues to Hawaii? No problem. Weekly newspapers getting delivered to small Oregon coastal towns over icy winter roads? No problem. He just solved the puzzles. He loved working with statistics, data and merging and purging mailing lists. His career had him beginning to manage mailing lists with Addressograph machines, and then he moved into the computer age and found the work tools that he so enjoyed: a computerized database and a printer.

Dick was one of the few people in this world who discovered his life’s true passion at the age of nine. There was a “school night for Scouting” at his grade school. He persuaded his mother to take him to the informational meeting. He enrolled as a Cub Scout, and his mother signed up to be a carpool driver for the Cub Pack when they had special field trips. Veva was quickly involved as a Den Mother, and Dick recruited a bunch of his friends to join Cub Scouts, too, so that he could have a den full of other Cub Scouts meeting weekly around his mother’s dining room table. Veva continued as a Den Mother for 27 years, and Dick joined Cub Scouts and was a lifelong Scouter from age nine to 75.

Dick served 12 years in the Oregon Army National Guard. He was a photographer and writer, part of the Public Information Office of the 41st Infantry Division (Sunset Division) which used to drill at the Armory in Tigard, Oregon. (The Sunset Highway is named for that military unit.)

While working at the News-Register in the late 1970s, he met a co-worker, Hester Hoffman. They married in 1980.

Dick was a father figure to many kids. Some of them were sheltered in their home. Dick and Hester’s first-born, Matthew, died as an infant. Their son, Jeffrey, arrived a few years later. They adopted Chuck, now in Hillsboro. They count Michael Posey of Spokane and John Ivan Nova of Bogata, Colombia, among their sons. And there were many other boys who came and went from their home.

Things Dick believed in: God, Family, Country, Scouting… particularly “The Patrol Method” of Scouting.

He was a longtime member of St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in McMinnville.

Just days before his passing, he retired as the Order of the Arrow “Lodge Adviser” of Wauna La-Mon’Tay Lodge, Cascade Pacific Council, Scouting America. He felt honored to have served in that volunteer leadership role for 10 years.

His funeral is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday, February 15, 2025, at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, 822 S.W. Second Street, McMinnville. Scouts and Scouters: please wear your favorite Class A or Class B uniform to the funeral.

There will be a second informal gathering for friends, family, Scouts, and Scouters. Date, time and location will be announced on the Macy & Son Funeral Directors' website.

His ashes will be inurned the following week in a private graveside ceremony in Portland. Macy & Son Funeral Chapel is handling the arrangements. To leave online condolences, please visit www.macyandson.com