Paul Bruce Phippeny
Marriages
Lucille
Lucille Alice Wick - August 30, 1940
Burial Details
Obituaries
Grand Junction Daily Sentinel page 7 B Death Notice - February 26, 2014
Paul Bruce Phippeny, 97, Naturita, died Feb. 23, 2014, at his home. Services will be at 11 a.m. Monday at Eckert Cemetery in Eckert. Survivors include his wife, Lucille; two daughters, Joan Walter of Silt and Karen Leonard of Grand Junction; one son, Dale of Naturita; one sister, Patricia Kaplan of Rio Rancho, N.M.; seven grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
Memorial contributions to the Nucla Naturita Senior Citizens
Center, P.O. Box 232, Nucla 81424.
Grand Junction Daily Sentinel page 7B - March 12, 2014
Paul Bruce Phippeny
March 6, 1916 - February 23, 2014
Paul Bruce Phippeny, known all of his life as Bruce, died as a natural
consequence of a long life at his home in Naturita, Colorado, on Feb.,
23, 2014, surrounded by his family. He was 11 days short of his 98th
birthday at the time of his death. Bruce was born on March 6, 1916,
at his home in Eckert, Colorado, to John Paul Phippeny and Marion
Elizabeth Ferguson Phippeny. He was the oldest of six children and
the only brother to his five younger sisters. He lost two of his sisters
at a young age and was particularly affected by the death in her child-
hood of his closest sister and best friend Joan, after whom he named
his older daughter. Bruce attended school in Eckert and joined the
Navy shortly after his graduation from high school. He was honorably
discharged in 1939, and returned home to Eckert, where he married
Lucille Alice Wick on August 30, 1940. Bruce and Lucille raised their
three children on the family farm in Eckert. He took extra work operating
a bulldozer and driving trucks to help supplement the farm income.
He later purchased one of the first self-propelled hay swathers in the area
and cut hay all over the Surface Creek Valley.
In 1978, at the age of 62, Bruce took on a new challenge by purchasing
a farm in the Paradox Valley with his son Dale. He lived there and
continued to help on the farm, driving equipment and putting in a pretty
good day’s work when he was as old as 96. He served from 1980-2008
as President of the Board of the Paradox Valley Reservoir Company,
helping to oversee the expansion and repair of Buckeye Reservoir and
supervising the delivery of irrigation water to the Paradox Valley for
27 years.
Bruce loved farming and he loved the outdoors. He enjoyed hunting,
camping, and fishing, leaving his children and grandchildren with fond
memories of childhood outings with their Papa. In later years, when
he slowed down from doing so much outside work, he had more time
for reading novels of the sea and the old west. He was a wonderful story-
teller and regaled his listeners with stories of his time in the Navy,
tales of growing up in the Surface Creek Valley, and shenanigans with
youthful friends that he remembered to the end of his life.
Paul Bruce Phippeny is survived by his wife, Lucille of Naturita,
CO; children, Joan Walter (Phil) of Silt, CO; Karen Leonard (Jerry) of
Grand Junction, CO, and Dale (Ruth) of Naturita, CO; and by seven
grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. He is survived by one sister,
Patricia Kaplan of Rio Rancho, NM. He was preceded in death by
his parents and his sisters, Llyn, Joan, Marcia, and Jean.
A graveside service for Bruce was held at the Eckert Cemetery in
Eckert, CO, on March 3, 2014.
