Philip Fay Wilder

Philip Fay Wilder died at General Hospital on December 16, 2011. He was born in Cheboygan, Michigan on January 19, 1926 to Harold and Edna Wilder. Philip married Freda Divine on September 3, 1943 in Joplin, Missouri.
Philip served in the Army from March 23, 1944 until March 3, 1946 as a member of the 1264 Engineering C Battalion. During his WWII-service, he earned the Victory Ribbon, European African Middle Eastern Theater Ribbon with two Bronze Stars, the Good Conduct Medal, and two Overseas Bars. While he was in Germany, Freda gave birth to their first child.

In the mid-1950s, he and Freda bought a farm outside of Oronogo, Missouri where they raised livestock and farmed for about 10 years until he was injured in a horseback accident. Over the years, they had five children, 12 grandchildren, 24 great-grandchildren, and one great-great-granddaughter.
Philip was a talented musician, mechanic, and all-around handyman. He began his long work history in Joplin, Missouri, leaving school in 7th grade, during the depression. He held physical labor jobs most of his life, working in factories and steel mills. When he and his wife moved their family to Walla Walla in 1965, he found employment at Ben Hunt Mfg. Company as a grinder and welder.

As a strong labor-union advocate, he pressed for a union at Ben Hunt, helped organize a strike and was terminated. After that, he gained his G.E.D. at Walla Walla Community College and was hired at the Washington State Penitentiary in 1975 where he worked until his retirement in 1988. After his retirement, he and Freda built their dream home on Mill Creek Road, which they sold after the flood of 1996 and moved into town.

Philip was a fair-minded man who believed in hard work balanced with hard play. He loved gathering with family and friends to play his guitar, sing, and dance. He enjoyed the outdoors, fishing, hunting, water skiing, and riding motorcycles. He taught himself his crafts, which included repairing, painting, and reupholstering automobiles and motorcycles; all aspects of home-building and repair; leather work; and woodworking.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Harold Wilder and Edna Serven, three of his siblings, Howard Wilder, Tom Wilder, and Helen Bray; his grandson, James Ray Wilder; and his wife of 68 years, Freda Wilder who died September 11, 2011. Surviving Philip are two sisters, Winifred Jackson and Nada Bray, and all of his children, Phillip Ray Wilder, Bobby Joe Wilder, Dixie Jeanie Bee, Patricia Lynn Divine Wilder and Deborah Sue Miller.

On Friday, December 23, 2011 a graveside service will be held at Ivy Cemetery in Prescott, Washington at 2 PM. There will be no viewing or processional to the cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to Walla Walla Community Hospice through Herring Groseclose Funeral Home.