Juneau resident James T. "Jim" Phillips, 56, died Jan. 30, 2002, in Juneau.
He was born April 3, 1916, in Chehalis, Wash., and lived in Juneau from 1946 until his death. While in Juneau, he worked as the Juneau School District's head custodian, as a fisherman, in the construction trade, as a taxi driver and as a towboatman.
His family remembers that he enjoyed his younger years in the Hood Canal area of Washington before coming to Alaska to fish with his dad in the late 1940s. They also said he had many fond memories and stories of huckleberry brush gathering and exploits on his boat the Pauline.
He lived through the attack at Pearl Harbor while serving in the U.S. Army as a communications lineman. He retired from the school district in 1981 and settled with his wife Rose Simonson Phillips in Tee Harbor. His family said that gardening and fishing were their favorite pastimes. They said he was a devoted husband for 32 years to Rose and cared for her through her illness until she died in 1999.
He is survived by sisters Thelma Vreed, Seattle, Charlotte Conn, Tacoma, Wash., Evelyn Burnett, Hadlock, Wash., Donna Tracy, Olympia, Wash., and Doris Fulton, Tacoma, Wash.; stepdaughters Myrtle Martinsen, Hinton, Alberta, Canada, Nancy Shelley, Kaizer, Ore., Ruth Saviers, Juneau; stepson David Simonson, Juneau; and numerous nephews and nieces.
Services will be held at 2 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 9, 2002, at Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses, 2517 Teslin St.
Source: The Juneau Empire, Juneau, Alaska, Thursday, February 7, 2002
