May 15 Today in OPC History

The Rev. Henry D. Phillips, Jr. was born on May 15, 1912. A graduate of Wheaton College and Westminster Theological Seminary, Mr. Phillips was ordained in 1937 and served as the pastor of the Congregational Church of Alto Pass, Illinois. He married Phyllis Little in 1940 in Ivy, Virginia, and his family grew to four children, Stephen, Henry III, Susan and Gary.

In 1939, Mr. Phillips accepted a call to serve as pastor of Knox Church in Washington, D.C. In the four decades that would follow, he pastored congregations in Nothingham, Pa. (Bethany OPC), Grove City, Pa. (Wayside OPC), Gresham, Wis. (Old Stockbridge OPC), Zoar, Wis. (Menominee OP Chapel) and Gladstone, Mich. (Pilgrim OP Chapel).

Phillips passionately supported the work of home and foreign missions. For many years he served on the Committee on Foreign Missions, and he labored in Wisconsin among two Native American tribes, helping to establish an OP chapel at Zoar on the foundation laid by his predecessor, the Rev. John Davies.

Homepage Picture: Left to right, Henry III, Stephen, Henry, Phyllis and Susan Phillips in 1960.