Robert “Bob†Ross Phillips, 90, of Odessa, Missouri passed away on Tuesday December 9, 2014 in Lee’s Summit, MO.
Graveside services will be 11:00 a.m., Saturday, December 13, 2014 at Greenton Cemetery. Visitation will be held from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., on Friday, December 12, 2014 at the Ralph O. Jones Funeral Home, 306 S. Second St., Odessa, MO, 64076, 816-633-5524. Memorials are suggested to the Caring Christian Clowns. Condolences for the family may be left at
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Bob was born on October 20, 1924 in Kansas City, MO to Harry and Merrie Alta (Jeffries) Phillips. He graduated from Holden High School in 1942. On November 23, 1954 he married Doris Marie (Johnson) Phillips in Buckner, MO. Doris preceded him in death on August 27, 2003. Bob suffered from polio as an infant, and was unable to serve in the military. Instead, he served his country during WW2 as a cockpit inspector at the B25 Bomber plant in the Fairfax District of Kansas City. He attended college at Westminster College in Fulton, MO, where he was a student when Winston Churchill gave his famous Iron Curtain Speech. Bob worked in the Odessa Town and Country Shoe Factory, and as an appliance repairman with Watson’s Appliances in Odessa. Later he owned his own business, Bob’s Electric Service for 22 years. He retired from his electrical company in 1986. A few months later he began his retirement vocation as a woodworker. Making wooden toys was his passion. Through the years he gave away thousands of toys to children locally and all over the world. Children’s Mercy Hospital and the VA Hospital still use his donated toys in their Physical Therapy departments. A portion of his toy collection is part of the permanent collection at the Kansas City Miniature and Toy Museum.
Survivors include two sons, Hap Phillips and wife Debbie of Odessa, MO and Kip Phillips and wife Angela of Lee’s Summit, MO; three grandchildren, Lauren Arpin and husband Kevin of Olathe, Kansas, Reed Phillips and wife Gretchen of Oak Grove, MO and Mason Phillips of Lee’s Summit, MO; a great grandchild, Henry Phillips of Oak Grove, MO; and a sister Nancee Barker of Odessa, MO.