A Highland Lakes hero remembered
A large projection showed Marble Falls Area Volunteer Fire Department Chief Michael Phillips at his best, smiling while on duty, during a memorial to his life and service at the Marble Falls High School auditorium. Staff photo by Dakota Morrissiey
The Highland Lakes community came together Tuesday, July 29, in the Marble Falls High School auditorium to memorialize Michael Phillips, who many called a hero. The Marble Falls Area Volunteer Fire Department chief was lost in the line of duty while responding to a distress call July 5 during the devastating flooding that impacted the Texas Hill Country.
Following a procession through Marble Falls, hundreds of area residents and first responders from across the state filed into the auditorium at around 3 p.m. Tuesday. The room was mostly silent in between emotional testimonies from those close to Phillips, but the solemn tension was often cut by laughter after a good memory of the chief was shared or the occasional cooing of a baby in the crowd.
During the ceremony, a short clip of an interview with Phillips from 2012 played for the audience. At the time, he was the volunteer department’s assistant chief.
“Some people have money, some people have patience, some people have a lot of gifts, but my gift is that I like to work hard, and if something in that work can help somebody else pull through the worst day of their life, that is the reward I get out of that,” he said in the interview.
Phillips was born in Del Rio in 1958. He and wife Cecilia were high school sweethearts who married shortly after they graduated and had been together ever since. He is survived by daughter Megan and her husband, grandchildren Paxton and Ryker, and sister Deborah. His grandchildren called him “Super Pop.”
Phillips was a U.S. Airforce veteran with eight years of service, worked for the Marble Falls Independent School District for over 20 years, and started volunteering with the Marble Falls Area VFD in 1995, shortly after moving to the Highland Lakes from Austin.
“On that fateful morning, when his final call came, he answered it just like he always had: without hesitation and with his whole heart,” reads his eulogy.
“When I think about Michael, I think about three things: family, pride, and generosity,” said MFISD Superintendent Jeff Gasaway, who worked with the chief for nine years.
“Mike, today we salute you as a chief for a job well done and as a friend. It is adios for now and see you soon,” said friend Terry White. “Comb your hair and stand by and stand fast because there are a few of us that may need a wall breached to get us into heaven.”
“As horrible as his loss is, I give thanks that when it was dark, it was storming, and it was raining, the call went out and the chief answered,” said John Brantley, reverend of St. Andrew Presbyterian Church of Marble Falls. “I am upset he didn’t get to come home, but I give thanks because that is the purest example of God’s incredible grace.”
“As a person, he was textbook, good as gold,” friend and fellow firefighter Thomas Jacobs told DailyTrib.com. “He is going to leave a hole in the world. The world lost a legend. On July 5, the world lost a legend.”
The memorial ended with the ceremonial ringing of the bell three times for the lost chief, a reading of the Fireman’s Prayer, and a song by the Austin Firefighter’s Association Honor Guard.
dakota@thepicayune.com
