.....His father died in 1949 and his mother struggled to run the farm with the help of a hired hand. So Phillips swapped jobs. He took over the farm while his mother ran the store, which she did until 1965.
..... Phillips married his first wife, Molly, in 1949. After having two children, Elizabeth and Steve, they divorced in 1959. He married his second wife, Jeanne, in 1963. They had three children together, Bill, John and Andrew. She died of lung cancer in 1989. "She'd fought it since 1983," he said. "It finally got the best of her."
..... Phillips started a dairy on his family's land in 1951. "It was a pretty hard way to make a living," he said.
..... At his peak, Phillips farmed more than 1,600 acres. The main farm went up the hill to the west of the house on Sunderland Drive, then east to Schaffer Road. The southern border was 44th Street. He owned and rented more land in Saltese Flats and Mica.
..... He started developing his land in 1966. "It would have been nice if it could have stayed a ranch," he said. "We just couldn't make it. Subdividing the land is what put the kids through college."

back then and he thought the cab-over would save him about 4 feet. The cab-over body didn't seem to hold up as well. It jiggled too much for Bell's liking."
....."For a brand new 1950 truck I'd been quoted $1800, but that was with just a chassis - no box or bed, size 7.50 tires, and only a straight 4-speed transmission. He offered to sell me his lone cab-over for the same price. It had bigger 8.25 tires, 2-ton axles, an auxillary 3-speed Browning transmission and hydraulic seats for the same price. When I bought it in 1950 it was the classiest truck around Chester."
....."The first thing I did was move my secretary and her new dentist husband over to Seattle. We went over early Saturday morning with all the furniture we could carry and made it back as far as Will and Mary's in Almira by 9:00 that night. Old Man Bollman watched the store for us that day," explained Phillips.
.....Phillips doesn't have much hope that one of his children will take over the farm. They all have established careers and these days it takes more than 2,000 acres to make a farm work, he said. "There's not much left in farming."
.....He does hope that one of them will move into the original farmhouse that still sits on the land, which Phillips has restored and remodeled.
.....Neighbor Art Hess has lived across the street from Phillips since 1986 and is pleased with how well the old farmhouse looks. "They're always making it look nicer," he said.
....."Phillips is a fine neighbor," Hess said. "We rag on each other a little bit. If he's out cutting the grass I'll go over and disturb him."
....."They're just superb folks. He's a dear, dear man. It wouldn't be the same without him."