Phillips memorial announcement

Re-printed from a McDaniel College press release:

We are saddened to report that Raymond Clarence Phillips, 75, professor emeritus of English, died October 8, 2007, after suffering a stroke last week while vacationing in Duck, NC.  Phillips joined the faculty at then Western Maryland College in 1963 with degrees in English from Dickinson College and Columbia University. Before coming to the college, he was an instructor in English for two years at Colby College and a teaching fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. He received a Ph.D. in English and American literature there in 1968.

He retired from full-time teaching in 1998 but kept unofficial office hours with his colleagues in the Economics and Business Administration Department. There he found regulars to listen to his anecdotes on life and regular golf partners.

Ray’s monographs on novelist and Hollywood screenwriter Larry McMurtry, of “Lonesome Dove” fame, and writer Struthers Burt established the beloved professor as an authority on Western fiction; he published numerous articles and reviews on American literature, notably fiction of the American West.

He received a faculty book award in 1984 for his monograph “Sruthers Burt.” He was also a popular reviewer for Books Sandwiched In, the campus’s lunchtime book group, and a contributor to The Hill magazine.

Ray served on many College committees, including the Budget Committee and the Faculty Affairs Committee and was elected by his peers as their first ombudsman, an office he held for 10 years. He held membership in the Thoreau Society, the Emily Dickinson Society, the Western Literature Association and the American Studies Association. As a longtime member of the American Association of University Professors, he served as both chapter and state president.

He delighted audiences with his acting ability in theatre productions both on and off campus. Recently, he was playing a lead role in an independent film, “Cinder,” written and produced by faculty colleague Jonathan Slade.

His students remember his descriptive lectures on the American literary giants; he often used the wooden window pull from Memorial (now Hill) Hall as a prop illustrating Natty Bumppo’s rifle or Ahab’s spear.

Ray and his wife, Andrée live in Uniontown, Md., and Williamsport, Pa. He has three grown children, Tim, Pam, and Win, all married and several grandchildren. He is also survived by a brother, David, and a sister, Carol.

Notice of his service will be forthcoming.  He will be greatly missed.