By Paul Crawford
Special to the Citizen Leader
The day before Christmas 2014 was a sad day for me. I was visting my brother in North Carolina when I received a phone call from Tom Phillips, Gen. Eugene Phillips’ son, informing me that the General had passed in Fairfax, Va.
I thought a great oak tree had fallen in the forest. An era had ended.
Eugene Phillips was born in Canon Nov. 26, 1917.
He grew up in Franklin County in the Sandy Cross community.
To get an idea of what it was like back then, he said one day when he and some other kids were working in the field, when they heard a noise coming down the dirt road. They all ran to the side of the road and a car went by. This was the first car they had ever seen.
He attended Royston High School and graduated as class valedictorian in 1935.
He showed his proclivity for writing in high school where he wrote essays for other students at a price of 25 cents each.
To go to college in those days was extremely rare for a poor country boy but he was driven by a desire to learn more and become a writer.
He entered the University of Georgia in the fall of 1935 and graduated in 1939 with a bachelor's degree in journalism.
While in college he had signed up in the Army ROTC program.
After graduation, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army cavalry and sent to Fort Hood, Texas, for training.
One of the stories he loved to tell was that they had to learn how to shoot at targets while riding at full gallop. Some of the horses had holes in their ears and had learned to lay their ears back on their necks to keep from having more holes shot in them.
At the beginning of World War II, there were more horses in the U.S. Army than there were men.
During the war, he was a reporter on the staff of Gen. George Patton, serving in North Africa and Europe, including the Battle of the Bulge where he said his feet got so cold he thought he might not be able to walk again.
Following the war, he served as an information officer at the Nuremburg war crimes trial.
After the war he worked for the state department in Burma and then joined the staff of the Milwaukee Journal and the Associated Press.
In 1968, he was promoted to brigadier general, serving in the office of the chief of information for the army. He retired in 1973 after a 34 year career.
His military awards include the Legion of Merit and the French Croix de Guerre.
In all, he traveled to 30 countries while in the service. When he was discharged, he then started a consulting company in Washington, D.C.
In 1983, he and his beloved wife Nadine returned to Royston were he served as Royston's first city manager from 1990-92.
He was involved in many civic and community activities and was a member of many organization such as the Franklin County Rotary Club, Chamber Of Commerce, American Legion, Reserve Officers Association, Military Order Of World Wars and the VFW, plus the Public Relations Society of America.
At one point in his life, he was the oldest alumni of UGA and a faithful Bulldog fan with season tickets.
One of his greatest joys was to walk across North Campus going to a ball game and seeing the students stop and look at him as he walked tall (6'7”) and upright, straight as a rod, with his big broad gray hat. He may have been one of the oldest fans there, but he was as excited as a freshman.
After the game, we would visit the Varsity where he loved the chili dogs and fried onion rings. He could truly teach a person how to enjoy life in old age and retirement.
As was his habit, he was faithful to his church. One day when we were traveling to Athens, I asked him if he had ever accepted Jesus as his personal savior? He said yes when he was a small boy they had a revival at Zidon and he gave his heart to Jesus and never looked back.
From that day on he had been a Christ follower. He mentioned that he was no longer able to read his Bible because of the small print. So we went to the Carpenter Book Store on Chase Street and bought a new KJV Bible with enlarged print.
In his civilian career, he served on the public relations staff of Delta Airlines and as the director of the Washington, D.C., office of Aerospace Corporation before opening his own firm as a consultant in Washington, D.C.
On March 2020, he was honored by the Franklin County Rotary Club as a Paul Harris Fellow for his long service and beneficence to the Rotary Foundation and the city of Royston for his years of service to his country and local community.
Of all the great men who could call Franklin County home, Gen. Phillips was truly one of the greatest.