After a short illness Wendell Leroy Phillips passed away and reunited with the love of his life Doris on September1st, 2024.
He was born March 9th , 1930, to Benjamin and Bertha Phillips in SLC, UT.
Wendell was a loving husband, amazing father, grandfather, great grandfather and great, great grandfather to a very large and grateful family. He also was a cancer survivor of over 30 years. When you met Wendell you would be greeted with a hearty handshake or a warm bearhug and sometimes both. There were usually 3 quick kisses involved as well. He worked very hard to raise his family of 6 children. He sometimes worked 2 or 3 jobs at the same time. Some of those jobs included The Broadway garage, Bennetts Paint, Burns detective agency, Hercules Powder Company, Garfield Smelter, Hygia Ice, South Salt Lake Fire department as assistant fire chief, U of U deputy fire marshal, United Plumbing supply and Bens Plumbing supply.
Wendell loved cars. He would often leave for work in one car and return in a different one. Around the age of 90 he decided he needed to buy the one car he always wanted but never had. It was a brand new Dodge Charger. Another thing he loved to do was move walls to different locations. He would just decide to knock a wall down in one place and put it back up in a different location. He also loved camping with his family and travelling in his motorhome. They were members of a motorhome club and enjoyed travelling across the USA with this group. After he and Doris retired they would take their motorhome south to Nevada and Arizona for the winter months. In the last 15 years, they spent much of their time camping with their family at the property of their children outside of Indianola, UT. He loved his family. They were the most important thing to him. He always treated everyone equally. Daughter or daughter-in-law, son or a son-in-law, grandchild or a step grandchild. They were all equal in his eyes. Wendell was a role model to many and taught us how to be better people and better parents. He was accepting of everyone.
He is survived by 6 children. Larry Phillips (Becky), Kathy Maxfield, Kevin Phillips (Jill), Char Phillips (Wendy Potter), Julie Ford (Terry) and Cindy Herbst (John). Survived by 24 grandchildren, 69 great grandchildren, 23 great, great grandchildren. Also survived by 1 sister- in-law Georgia. Preceded in death by Doris, his loving wife of 69 years. His parents Benjamin and Bertha. Brothers Benny, Floyd and Mel. Sisters Wanda Carlson, Merle Pangos (Gill) and Sherry Carlson (Lonnie). Also preceded in death by one son-in-law Brad Maxfield.
Funeral Services will be held at
Larkin Sunset Gardens
1950 E Dimple Dell Road,
Sandy, UT
Thursday September 12th, 2024
Viewing 10:00-10:45 am
Services 11:00 am
Interment following services
Video
Guestbook/Condolences
I love you Grandpa. Your kindness, acceptance and caring has always been completely evident.
Sure miss you and Grandma.
Dearest Char & family, Jim & I would like to send our deepest condolences on the loss of Wendell, such a sweet, loving, caring person he was, we know you will miss him dearly, I would like to tell you that the grieving gets easier but it doesn’t, I miss my papa every single day & it’s been almost ten years!! All I can say is stay strong & stay together, that’s all that parents want is for their kids to stay together!! We love you, Mom & Papa Jim😪😪❤️❤️
We're so sorry for the loss of Wendell and wish all of his family the very best. He lived a long and full life.
Wendell is leaving a big void. Our friendship was brief, but we feel privileged to have known him. He was so kind, very friendly and had a great smile!!