Bernard PHELPS

1921 - 2015

News Death Notice

PHELPS, Bernard Bernard Phelps, former Oxford mayor and founding director of Miami University's campus in Hamilton, died Friday evening at The Knolls in Oxford. He was 93. Bernard Fred Phelps was born Sept. 8, 1921 on a tenant farm outside of Augusta, Jackson County, Illinois, delivered by his father, Timothy Royal Phelps, a farm hand. His mother was Helen Wood Phelps, also a rural Illinoisan. He grew up during the great depression. His early years included an itinerant life with his mother and older brother, Robert, as she traveled with two of her boys in Illinois and Indiana and Canada, taking work where she could find it--in Macomb, Illinois, Kokomo, Indiana and Regina, Saskatchewan before settling in Terre Haute, Indiana. Phelps attended Terre Haute public schools, earning a high school diploma from the Indiana State University Laboratory School and worked, with his brother, for his stepfather as a newspaper carrier and street newspaper vendor. Bernie learned to fly while attending Indiana State University and, after the Pearl Harbor bombing, signed up to go to Navy flight school in Pensacola. Earning his Navy wings of gold, he was commissioned in the Marine Corps and, soon after, married his school sweetheart from Terre Haute, Peg Sullivan. He served two combat tours in the Marshall Islands, flying Wildcats and Corsairs. When the war ended, he returned to Terre Haute, earning a bachelor's degree from Indiana State University. The couple and their son, Michael, moved to Oxford, Ohio in the summer of 1946 after Bernie won an appointment as a graduate assistant in the speech department at Miami. In 1948, he earned his master's degree in speech and the Phelpses welcomed their second son, William. Bernie taught in the speech department, coached the debate team and had responsibility for the university speaker's bureau while pursuing an Ohio State Ph.D part-time. During that period, he taught around southwestern Ohio in Miami's extension program and, in summers worked on a paper machine at Champion in Hamilton and for the university buildings department re-painting dormitory rooms. He was awarded his doctorate in 1957. Bernie left teaching in 1967 when he was selected to plan for Miami's branch campus in Hamilton, Ohio and then to become its first director. He also served for many years as parliamentarian of the Miami University faculty senate and for 29 years as the voice of Miami football. He returned to the Oxford campus in 1978 and completed his career as he began it -- teaching. He retired from Miami in 1984. Bernie led an active civic life, serving as Oxford's mayor and chairman of the charter commission that initiated the city manager form of government. He served as the first chairman of McCullough-Hyde hospital. He was a spark plug for the group that solicited proposals from developers for a retirement community in Oxford, an initiative that resulted in the building of The Knolls of Oxford where he and his wife lived the latter years of their lives. A convert, he was active in St. Mary parish, working with Father Henry Naber on the launch and development of the liturgical movement in the early 60s and, for many years, was a lector for Mass. He was a golfer and, post-retirement, bagged a hole-in-one at Oxford Country Club. Phelps is survived by sons, Michael E., Bethesda, MD; William Bernard, Oxford; daughters-in-law, Gail and Adrienne; grandchildren, Aimee, Portsmouth, RI, Jeremiah, Newport, RI, Delaney & Harrison, Bethesda; Molly Merz, Hamilton, Katherine Bray, Hamilton and Bernard, Hamilton. He is also survived by grandsons-in-law, Jason Merz and Timothy Bray and granddaughter-in-law, Tammy Phelps. Great-grandchildren are: Chloe and Will Bray, Hamilton, Davis and Nathan Lee, Portsmouth, RI; and Mason and Max Merz, Hamilton. His wife of 66 years, Peg Sullivan Phelps, died in 2010. His brothers. Robert and Scott and sister, Margaret, also preceded him in death. A Mass of Christian Burial will be offered by Father Jeff Silver at St. Mary at 10:30 Tuesday. Visitation is Monday from 4 to 7 PM at Ogle-Paul R. Young Funeral Home, 5086 College Corner Pike, Oxford, Ohio. A celebration of the life of Bernie Phelps will be held from 4 to 6 PM Tuesday at the Knolls of Oxford. In lieu of flowers the family has requested donations be made to the Bernard F. and Margaret L. Phelps Scholarship, Miami University, Hamilton or St. Mary Catholic Church, Oxford, Ohio. Condolences may be sent to www.oglepaulyoungfuneralhome.com