Richard Stuart Phillips papers

Ohio ornithologist and naturalist Richard "Doc" Stuart Phillips was born November 29, 1913, in Cygnet, Wood County, Ohio. He was the son of James Stuart Phillips (1886-1950) and Icie Mae Sowards (1890-1971), who were married October 16, 1909, in Wood County. Richard's father worked as the editor of the Cygnet Review. James Phillips, was of New England lineage, the son of James Thomas Phillips (1861-1926) and Nellie J. Smith (1867-1933), while his wife Icie, of Southern heritage, was the daughter of Martin L. Sowards (1856-1948) and Roxlielena Frances Elkins (1856-1945).

From an early age "Doc" Phillips took to nature. As a 6 year old, he persuaded his father to carry home a dead tree trunk containing a red-headed woodpecker and its nest, so he could study it and from there his naturalist career only escalated. He graduated from Findlay High School in 1931 and immediately entered Findlay College. There he had an amazing three majors - biology, psychology and English with a French minor - and graduated in 1934. Phillips began his long teaching career in 1938 in Cygnet, while working on his Master's Degree from Bowling Green State University. "Those first two years were something else", Phillips later reminisced as he taught English to grades seven, eight, nine and twelve, second year French, biology and general science every day. He also served as high school track and junior high basketball coach, as well as assistant scoutmaster. In 1940, "Doc" received his Master's Degree in entomology and became a biology teacher at Findlay High School succeeding his own biology teacher George W. Lee.

Following his move Richard married Violet Rice on September 2, 1938. He continued to teach at Findlay High School until 1950 when he joined the Findlay College biology staff, again succeeding his own teacher, Dr. William Levan, but returned to Findlay High School two years later in 1952. "I like the high school age person", Phillips later claimed, "and it seems there is really a lot I can do for people of that age." It was during this time that Phillips wore a short white lab coat in the biology lab to keep preservatives from being splashed on his clothes. One day a kid walked into the classroom and asked, "What's up, Doc?" and the name "Doc" stuck ever since then. Phillips continued to teach there uninterrupted until retiring in 1975, except for one year when he served as outdoor education program director at Holden Arboretum of Willoughby Eastlake School District in 1967. Phillips spent the summer of 1959 studying birds in Montana as part of the Montana State University Biological Station. He also taught human anatomy courses at Findlay College for ten summers, before retiring from the Biology Department in August 1988.

Every Saturday during his long teaching career Phillips would go roaming through the woods in search of birds. "Birding started out as a hobby when I was a kid", Phillips recalled, "and I just never grew out of it." Since that time, he kept detailed records of area birds; recording the appearance of the House Finch in the Findlay area in 1981 and the disappearance of the ring-neck pheasant and bob-white quail as a result of the 1978 blizzard. His observations and interests led him to numerous publications including Audubon, Field and Stream, Natural History, Nature, Ohio Conservation Journal, Wilson Bulletin and more than 100 articles in Ohio Farmer. His most pivotal article appeared in Audubon Magazine in 1949 entitled "A Fair Deal for Our Birds of Prey". The article sparked legislation in many states, including Ohio, to protect birds of prey. Phillips also published two book about birds in the northwest Ohio area: Birds of Hancock County (1951) that documented 189 species of birds and Checklist of Birds of Hancock County (1968). He also contributed as a weekly columnist for the Findlay Courier beginning in 1952 authoring the column "In Nature's Realm". He wrote over 1,700 columns for the newspaper that totaled over 1,300,000 words and wrote about everything from game animals, fish, and birds of prey to gardening, plants, rabbits, trees, muskrats, possums and algae.

Phillips' proactive approach in biology and ornithology gained him much recognition. In 1960, he won Ohio's Outstanding Instructor (Teacher of the Year) Award for his development of a comprehensive biology program at Findlay High School. Five years later in 1965 he was awarded with Ohio's Outstanding Biology Teacher of the year award. His outstanding work in conservation won him the Daughter of the American Revolution (DAR) Award in 1978 followed with him receiving Citizen of the Year from Findlay in 1979. "Doc's" various activities included being president of the Hancock County Humane Society, member of the Board of Governors at Findlay College for over fifteen years and starting the Hancock County Naturalist organization in 1976 along with actively developing Oakwood Nature Preserve. Richard Phillips died November 2, 1993, in Findlay, Ohio, leaving his wife and two children Tom and Nancy.