Phillip I. Wayne passed away peacefully at his home in Sitka on Monday, September 27, at the age of 89.
Phil’s arrival on February 7, 1937, in Corbin, Kentucky, was prominently featured in the Corbin Times as the first Caesarean birth in Laurel County, Kentucky. His mother and father had lost two previous children during childbirth, making Phil a treasured only child from the very beginning.
Soon afterward, the family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where his father joined his brothers at their butcher shop. During World War II, his mother went to work at an airplane factory, and Phil developed the independence that would characterize him throughout his life, roaming the Sharonville neighborhoods with his friends. By the age of ten, he had talked himself into a job as a caddy at the local golf course.
The family next moved to Denver, Colorado, where Phil became a standout athlete at Arvada High School as a fullback, wrestler, and catcher.
Severe dyslexia made him less of a star in the classroom, however. He liked to say that his favorite subject was “hookey.” Once, in an act that was very much in keeping with the Phil who would emerge over the years, he “borrowed” a school bus and took his classmates to Elitch Gardens amusement park for the day.
Phil was also a fiercely loyal friend—the person you could count on when you needed help. When his high school best friend, Bill Riley, ran into family difficulties, Phil brought him home to stay. From that day forward, Bill was his brother.
Phil attended University of Northern Colorado on a football scholarship and later transferred to Western State College where he majored in theater. While playing Macduff in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, he met Kathy Stone, the woman who would become his wife and his partner for 67 years.
They married that summer, and Phil went to work building a life for their growing family—Dan, born in 1960; Howard, in 1962; and Stacey, in 1963. He worked as a teacher by day, at his father’s Conoco station on weekends, and sold real estate after school.
In the summer of 1968, Phil loaded eight-year-old Dan into his Volkswagen and set off in search of work in a state that paid a living wage. He ended up in Anchorage, where he found teaching jobs for both himself and Kathy on the Fort Richardson military base. He then returned to Denver, loaded his family and all their belongings onto a flatbed truck, and drove the Alcan Highway to Alaska.
In 1969, the family moved to Wrangell, where Phil taught fifth and sixth grades until his retirement.
Phil believed that education should extend far beyond the classroom. In Wrangell, he worked with Leroy Fenimore and Janice Emde to create the Vank Island Camp, where fifth graders spent the last week of the school year living in cabins, learning outdoor skills and experiencing Alaska firsthand, with high school students serving as counselors.
Phil’s signature is on the founding documents for KSTK public radio. He applied for the license and recruited its early volunteer announcers, including his son Dan, who took the morning shift. Phil and Kathy were an organizing force behind community schools in Wrangell, finding yet another way to bring people together and create opportunities for learning.
With his friend Terry Crenshaw, Phil started the wrestling program at Wrangell High School in the early 1970s, and he coached the team through 15 seasons. Wrestling, like so many of Phil’s interests, suited him well. He was a weightlifter and fitness enthusiast throughout his life. At just 5 feet, 6 inches, tall, he was nevertheless famously imposing. His Wrangell friends will remember him clean and jerking six-foot-two Terry over his head as a party trick.
Phil was happiest at his cabin on Niblack Island, teaching son Howard to field a baseball, or competing in anything from bridge to tennis.
In the tradition of his Kentucky ancestors, Phil loved to tell stories. He delighted his daughter Stacey’s slumber-party friends with spooky renditions of “The Golden Arm” and “The Monkey’s Paw,” and he had a storyteller’s gift for making an audience lean in a little closer.
For all his toughness and independence, Phil had a particularly tender side as a grandfather. He was the kind of grandpa who crawled around on the floor giving horsey rides or zooming his grandchildren through the air like airplanes. When no other adult would ride the whirling teacups or brave the roller coaster, Grandpa Phil was an enthusiastic volunteer.
That was Phil: independent, resourceful, competitive, mischievous, generous, and not a man one could push around. He inspired his family to seek out challenges and throw themselves at life.
Phil is survived by his son Dan Wayne (Kathleen) and grandchildren Anna and Nelli Wayne of Juneau; his wife Kathy, son Howard, daughter Stacey (Bart Meyer); grandchildren Sam Woolsey (Meg Mielke) and Caitlin Woolsey (Keith Grenier); and his four great-grandchildren, Jens Grenier, June Grenier, Ione Woolsey, and Clio Woolsey, all of Sitka.
A small family funeral will be held at a later date.
