Tuesday, February 26, 2008 The news you need now

Franklyn W. Phillips

Worked for NASA and University of Massachusetts

Monitor staff


February 26, 2008 - 12:00 am

Franklyn W. Phillips, 90, of Concord, died Monday, Feb. 18, 2008.

Born in Cleveland, he was the son of A. Edward and Pearl (Updegraf) Phillips and grew up in Cleveland and Birmingham, Mich.

He was a graduate of General Motors Institute and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He worked as a researcher at the Langley and Lewis Research Centers of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, as a research manager for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, as assistant to the first two NASA administrators in Washington, D.C., as secretary to the National Aeronautics and Space Council, as the organizer and director of the NASA Northeast Office, and as director of administration at the NASA Electronics Research Center in Cambridge, Mass.

After his career with NASA, Mr. Phillips worked as vice president of administration for the University of Massachusetts in Boston until his retirement in 1973.

He met his wife, Patricia (Bjorklund), while working at the Lewis Research Center in Cleveland. They were married in 1945 and lived in the District of Columbia; Falls Church, Va.; and Alexandria, Va., before moving to Wellesley, Mass., in 1962. They became residents of Eastman in 1978.

His wife predeceased him in October 2001, and he moved to Havenwood-Heritage Heights in Concord in 2006.

Mr. Phillips was active in parishes of the Episcopal Church throughout his life, most recently in the New Hampshire Diocese at Grace Church in Concord, and immediately before that, at St. Thomas Church in Hanover.

He is survived by his two children, Marianne P. Leonard of Woburn, Mass., and Andrew W. Phillips of Amherst, Mass.; three grandchildren, Michael J. Leonard of St. Louis and Robert L. and Amanda M. Phillips of Amherst, Mass.; and one great-grandchild, Cypher Nartowicz, also of Amherst, Mass.

Memorial services will be held at a later date.

Memorial donations may be made to the Havenwood-Heritage Heights Resident Fund, 145 East Side Drive, Concord 03301; or to Grace Episcopal Church, 30 Eastman St., Concord 03301.

Bennett Funeral Home in Concord is in charge of arrangements.




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