John H. Phillips
John H. Phillips, 83, passed away peacefully, with family at his side in Duke Raleigh Hospital, Friday, June 20, 2025, following a brief illness. He was born March 21, 1942, in Buckhannon, a son of the late General Scott and Elizabeth Phillips.In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by the love of his life, Judy Phillips, who passed away July 13, 2024 (and oh how he missed his 'sweetie'); siblings, Edgar, Oley and Gladys; his mother and father-in-law, Virgil and Helen Whetzel; and his brother-in-law, Virgil Whetzel, Jr.His memory will be cherished and kept alive by his loving children: Scott (Becky), Elaine Riffle (Chris), and his fuzzy little 'favorite daughter,' Idgie; his devoted brother, Journal Phillips (Edie); his brother-in-law, Dave Whetzel (Jo); his sister-in-law, Linda; and his treasured grandchildren, Meghann Savasta (Thomas), Logan Chapman (Emily), Tanika Riffle, and Brooklyn Riffle (Joey); along with his precious great- grandchildren, Silas, Brynlee, Adalynne, Emersyn, Elliana, Paxton and Jansler; and numerous beloved nieces and nephews.John loved his family immensely and always looked forward to spending time with them. There were always family gatherings for holidays and birthdays (including his annual t-bone steak and homemade strawberry shortcake birthday dinner); long visits with his brother and his kids; sled riding/tubing during butchering season at the farm; annual trips to the beach; and fishing with his father-in-law and brothers-in-law at the Shenandoah River, where he was affectionately nicknamed 'Shenandoah Sam,' a name that stuck more often than not; his close family referred to him as 'Sam,' instead of 'John.' He also rarely turned down a chance to watch a good John Wayne Western rerun.John worked 30+ years for the Morgantown Water Company, which later became the Morgantown Utility Board (MUB), where he worked his way up from a manual laborer to the role of distribution superintendent.He also could be found on evenings and weekends devotedly working the family farm.John served two years in the U.S. Army, where he was a sharpshooter. He regaled his family with stories that showed his fun personality-such as a story of war games in the desert, where his unit 'commandeered' a gasoline truck, and another of how he and several other soldiers drove through a watermelon patch and helped themselves to some after they were specifically told not to. Then, when things turned more serious, he told of himself and his fellow soldiers loading all of their gear onto a train and getting ready to be shipped out during the Cuban Missile Crisis.John always had a dog and/or a cat that he loved; he gave faithfully to the ASPCA. In honoring John's love of animals, the family requests that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to a favorite animal rescue or shelter.Friends and family gathered in McCulla Funeral Home from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 24. Visitation continues in the funeral home Wednesday, June 25, from 10 until the 11 a.m. funeral service, with the Rev. Kevin Cain officiating. Entombment will follow at Beverly Hills Mausoleum.
Condolences may be sent to the family at www.McCulla.com
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Los Angeles Times
4 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
The world's largest wildlife crossing is entering Stage 2: What's that mean for traffic?
When you're trying to build a mountain over one of the country's busiest freeways, it's easy to be envious of original creation stories, when natural spaces were formed with just a wave of the hand. In those stories, there were no overhead wires to bury or water lines to move. There weren't vehicles to divert, underground creeks that required stabilization, majestic oaks that had to be saved or soils that required inoculation with local microbes. But such are the looming challenges for the designers and builders of the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, the world's largest and most ambitious crossing designed to give wildlife a safe and nature-mimicking passage over the 10-lane 101 Freeway in Agoura Hills. The crossing structure itself is mostly completed — except the planting, which will happen this fall — but it's basically a bridge to nowhere right now, squatting over the freeway just west of the Liberty Canyon Drive offramp. (Although — news flash! — even though it's not connected to the neighboring hills, the first non-insect wildlife was spotted on the bridge last week: a Western fence lizard basking at the top, roughly 75 feet above the traffic below.) The second and final phase is installing the connectors — the structure's shoulders that will permit freeway-fragmented wildlife to easily cross between the Santa Susana Mountains to the north and the Santa Monica Mountains to the south. Expanding the areas where wildlife can safely roam will increase their chances of finding mates while improving the health and genetic diversity of everything from lizards to mountain lions like P-22, whose lonely life in Griffith Park helped inspire the crossing. This second phase is the trickiest part of the project, especially the south-side connection over Agoura Road, according to Robert Rock, chief executive of Chicago-based Rock Design Associates and the landscape architect overseeing the $92.6-million project. Work on the south side requires burying overhead wires near the site, moving water lines for the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, stabilizing an underground creek (dubbed No-Name Creek) that runs under the tunnel site to prevent erosion and then driving two walls of pilings deep into the ground for 175 feet along Agoura Road to build the 54-foot-wide tunnel that will span the road. Once the tunnel is constructed and the concrete roof is poured, workers will literally be moving a small mountain of soil from the north side of the freeway, where it was piled when this stretch of the 101 was constructed in the 1950s, to cover the tunnel and create the sloping connecting shoulder into the Santa Monica Mountains. The final work will be planting more native shrubs, perennials and trees on the shoulders and adding two miles of galvanized steel fencing on either side of the crossing to funnel animals over the crossing and away from human-made roadways and homes. Easy peasy, right? Except for one more detail — they have to do all this building and earth moving without disturbing a sprawling grove of native oak trees growing around the site. 'It's a tricky pocket,' said Rock. 'We're definitely threading a needle.' Some of the smaller trees may have to be removed, he said, but the designers are doing everything they can to maintain the native trees growing around the site. Not surprising, because the whole project has focused on re-creating nature as much as possible on a foundation of concrete and steel, with native plants grown from seeds collected within a three-mile radius of the project and soil specially inoculated with local fungi and microbes to enhance their growth. The plants are being tended at the project nursery a few miles from the site. C.A. Rasmussen Inc., the Valencia-based contractor who built the first phase of the project, has won the bid to do the second stage as well, said Rock. Weather delays — primarily from heavy rains in 2022 and 2023 — have pushed the crossing's final completion date to the end of 2026. The state of California has provided $58.1 million of the $92.6-million project, as part of its '30 by 30' goal to conserve 30% of the state's lands and coastal waters by 2030. The rest of the funds are coming from private donations. Work on the final phase is expected to begin next week. Much of the prep work and tunnel construction will require at least a partial closure of Agoura Road, but the builders have to give 30-days notice before the closures begin. The specific closure hours are still being negotiated with the city of Agoura Hills, but Rock said he expects Agoura Road will be only partially closed to vehicle and bike traffic during daytime hours, when the contractor will be working. The closures are expected to begin in early August, and last for 'several months,' he said. 'I can't really say [how long] beyond several months' worth of impacts,' he said, 'but I hope we can be done by the end of the year.' A few plants are already beginning to grow on the main structure, from a special cover crop of four native plants hand-sown in the spring — golden yarrow (Eriophyllum confertiflorum), California poppy (Eschscholzia californica), giant wildrye (Elymus condensatus) and Santa Barbara milk vetch (Astragalus trichopodus), chosen because they best flourished with the mycorrhizal fungi and other microbes added to the soil. Last week, at least one invasive black mustard plant was also visible on the crossing — not surprising since the surrounding hills were lush with the fast-growing, easily spread mustard earlier this spring — but contractors are supposed to keep those invasive plants weeded out, Rock said, to give the natives a chance to get established. Hundreds of native plants that were grown from seed in the project's nearby nursery will be planted on the crossing this fall, probably in October, said Beth Pratt, California regional executive director of the National Wildlife Federation and leader of the Save LA Cougars campaign, who is overseeing funding and fundraising for the project. Save LA Cougars is selling a blend of six native seeds provided by Pacific Coast Seed (formerly S&S Seed) for people who want bragging rights to growing six of the native plants that will feature prominently on the crossing — common deerweed (Acmispon glaber var. glaber), ashyleaf buckwheat (Eriogonum cinereum), showy penstemon (Penstemon spectabilis), black sage (Salvia mellifera), narrow leaf milkweed (Asclepias fascicularis) and foothill needlegrass (Stipa lepida) You can order a packet of the souvenir seeds online for $10. Proceeds will support the project's nursery, which is featured in a new Save LA Cougars video explaining how all the crossing's native plants, soils and compost have been chosen and nurtured. In the meantime, the recent tariffs have added a new funding concern for the project. It's not clear yet if the project will need to do more fundraising to cover all the increased costs, Pratt said. 'Robert [Rock] and CalTrans have been working around the clock to redesign and value-design to get the costs down, which is why we're able to proceed [with Stage 2],' Pratt said. 'The team work has been extraordinary.' It's possible they may need to raise more money to cover final expenses like the two miles of extra-tall fencing that Rock estimates will cost around $2 million, but right now, Pratt said, the design adjustments seem to have contained the extra costs. 'They got them down again, so I think we're home free.' Meanwhile, while all these human issues are unfolding, somewhere on top of the unfinished crossing that Western fence lizard appears to be making a home, even though the naked terrain looks like a moonscape right now. Pratt was leading a small group of visitors when she spotted the little reptile, and it took her a moment to process its import. 'I see Western fence lizards all the time in my yard and they are everywhere — one of the most common animals you will see in California,' Pratt wrote in an email. 'But then it hit me, 'Wait. This lizard is on the bridge!!!!! And this is the first animal I have seen on the bridge!!!!' I stopped the group ... and told them — 'You are seeing the first animal on the crossing itself.' Everyone cheered. Even the lizard seemed to know it was a special occasion. He posed for the photos I took.'
Dominion Post
15 hours ago
- Dominion Post
John H. Phillips
John H. Phillips, 83, passed away peacefully, with family at his side in Duke Raleigh Hospital, Friday, June 20, 2025, following a brief illness. He was born March 21, 1942, in Buckhannon, a son of the late General Scott and Elizabeth addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by the love of his life, Judy Phillips, who passed away July 13, 2024 (and oh how he missed his 'sweetie'); siblings, Edgar, Oley and Gladys; his mother and father-in-law, Virgil and Helen Whetzel; and his brother-in-law, Virgil Whetzel, memory will be cherished and kept alive by his loving children: Scott (Becky), Elaine Riffle (Chris), and his fuzzy little 'favorite daughter,' Idgie; his devoted brother, Journal Phillips (Edie); his brother-in-law, Dave Whetzel (Jo); his sister-in-law, Linda; and his treasured grandchildren, Meghann Savasta (Thomas), Logan Chapman (Emily), Tanika Riffle, and Brooklyn Riffle (Joey); along with his precious great- grandchildren, Silas, Brynlee, Adalynne, Emersyn, Elliana, Paxton and Jansler; and numerous beloved nieces and loved his family immensely and always looked forward to spending time with them. There were always family gatherings for holidays and birthdays (including his annual t-bone steak and homemade strawberry shortcake birthday dinner); long visits with his brother and his kids; sled riding/tubing during butchering season at the farm; annual trips to the beach; and fishing with his father-in-law and brothers-in-law at the Shenandoah River, where he was affectionately nicknamed 'Shenandoah Sam,' a name that stuck more often than not; his close family referred to him as 'Sam,' instead of 'John.' He also rarely turned down a chance to watch a good John Wayne Western worked 30+ years for the Morgantown Water Company, which later became the Morgantown Utility Board (MUB), where he worked his way up from a manual laborer to the role of distribution also could be found on evenings and weekends devotedly working the family served two years in the U.S. Army, where he was a sharpshooter. He regaled his family with stories that showed his fun personality-such as a story of war games in the desert, where his unit 'commandeered' a gasoline truck, and another of how he and several other soldiers drove through a watermelon patch and helped themselves to some after they were specifically told not to. Then, when things turned more serious, he told of himself and his fellow soldiers loading all of their gear onto a train and getting ready to be shipped out during the Cuban Missile always had a dog and/or a cat that he loved; he gave faithfully to the ASPCA. In honoring John's love of animals, the family requests that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to a favorite animal rescue or and family gathered in McCulla Funeral Home from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 24. Visitation continues in the funeral home Wednesday, June 25, from 10 until the 11 a.m. funeral service, with the Rev. Kevin Cain officiating. Entombment will follow at Beverly Hills Mausoleum. Condolences may be sent to the family at
Chicago Tribune
a day ago
- Chicago Tribune
Today in History: Siam changes its name to Thailand
Today is Tuesday, June 24, the 175th day of 2025. There are 190 days left in the year. Today in history: On June 24, 1939, the Southeast Asian country of Siam changed its name to Thailand. (It reverted to Siam in 1945, then became Thailand once again in 1949.) Also on this date: In 1509, Henry VIII was crowned king of England; his wife, Catherine of Aragon, was crowned queen consort. In 1948, Communist forces cut off all land and water routes between West Germany and West Berlin, prompting the Western allies to organize the Berlin Airlift. In 1957, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Roth v. United States, ruled in a 6-3 decision that obscene materials were not protected by the First Amendment. In 1973, President Richard Nixon concluded a summit with the visiting leader of the Soviet Union, Leonid Brezhnev, who hailed the talks in an address on American television. In 1983, the space shuttle Challenger — carrying America's first woman in space, Sally Ride — coasted to a safe landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California. In 1992, the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, strengthened its 30-year ban on officially sponsored worship in public schools, prohibiting prayer as a part of graduation ceremonies. In 2010, in the first round of the Wimbledon Championships, American John Isner won the longest professional tennis match in history, defeating Nicolas Mahut of France 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 70-68; the match was played over the course of three days and lasted a total of 11 hours, 5 minutes. In 2015, a federal judge formally sentenced Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death for the 2013 terror attacks. (A federal appeals court later threw out the sentence; the Supreme Court reinstated it.) In 2018, women in Saudi Arabia were allowed behind the wheel for the first time as the world's last remaining ban on female drivers was formally lifted. In 2021, a 12-story condominium building collapsed in Surfside, Florida, killing 98 people. In 2022, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to remove constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place since 1973's Roe v. Wade. Today's Birthdays: Author Anita Desai is 88. Cinematographer Vittorio Storaro is 85. Actor Michele Lee is 83. Actor-director Georg Stanford Brown is 82. Musician Mick Fleetwood is 78. Actor Peter Weller is 78. Golf Hall of Famer Juli Inkster is 65. Actor Iain Glen is 64. Musician Curt Smith (Tears for Fears) is 64. Mexican President Claudia Scheinbaum is 63. Singer Hope Sandoval (Mazzy Star) is 59. Actor Sherry Stringfield ('ER') is 58. Actor-producer Mindy Kaling is 46. Actor Minka Kelly is 45. Singer Solange Knowles is 39. Soccer player Lionel Messi is 38. Actor Beanie Feldstein is 32. Actor Harris Dickinson is 29.
