Obituaries
Joe Phillips, trade association leader
Joe Phillips, who served as executive
director of the Wisconsin Fabricare Institute, passed away Wednesday, October 12 at his
home in Greenfield, WI.
During his years with WFI, he worked with
nine different association presidents and successfully helped
lobby for the state’s Drycleaners
Environmental Response Fund program. He
also simultaneously served as the executive director to six
other trade associations through his management/advertising
firm. He was a charter member of the WFI Hall of Fame. He
retired at the end of 2001.
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Phillips was born on March 17, 1934 in
Milwaukee and graduated from St. Mary Czestochowa, Messmer High
School and Marquette University. He served for three
years in the U.S. Army, most of that time in Japan with the
Armed Forces Radio Service. Prior to that he worked as a deejay
at WOSH in Oshkosh.
Upon his military discharge, Phillips
embarked on a broadcasting career that began at WCWC in Ripon,
WI, and took him to WJRL in Rockford, IL, where he was news
director, then to WISN in Milwaukee, where he was a news and
sports announcer from 1962 to 1967.
Phillips was asked to serve as caucus
staff director for State Assembly Republicans in Madison, WI.
After seven years in that post, he returned to the Milwaukee
area to open Torii Advertising, Inc., which initially provided
advertising, public relations and lobbying services to a
variety of local clients. Ultimately, the firm focused on the
management of state trade associations, including WFI, the
Wisconsin Green Industry Federation, the Wisconsin Nursery
Association, the Illinois Sign Association, the Wisconsin
Association of Textile Services, the Fair Aid Coalition and
associations that served jukebox and video game vendors,
billboard owners and heating and air conditioning contractors.
Phillips became an influential voice in
fraternal term, whole life and health insurance, having served
for 24 years on the board of directors of the Catholic Knights
Life Insurance Society. Among his notable achievements was the
creation of a scholarship program that made Catholic secondary
education available to literally hundreds of Catholic families
through the upper Midwest.
As a political writer, he wrote for
several national publications.
The firm Phillips founded was sold in
2002 to Brian Swingle. The name, Torii Phillips Association
Management, LLC, was coined by Swingle “to reflect the
integrity of the company’s founder and to be assured that
Phillips would not be forgotten.”
He is survived by his wife, Kikue;
children, Kim Marie Stahl and Paul David; and four
grandchildren.
Mass of Christian Burial was held October
18 at St. Mary Catholic Faith Community in Hales Corners. He
was laid to rest at Holy Cross Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, memorials to St.
Mary’s Endowment Fund or the School of Sisters of Notre
Dame Retirement Fund are appreciated.
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John Neal, attorney turned cleaner
John Neal, long-time owner of Ineeda
Laundry & Drycleaners, Inc. in Hutchinson, Kansas, died on
Sept. 4 of leukemia.
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“Most things that you think are so
urgent — that the world can’t get along without you
doing them — you find out it really can,” he said.
Born in 1941, Neal grew up in Kansas and
was strongly encouraged by his father, Kenneth, to pursue his
dreams — even if it meant not following in his own
drycleaning footsteps.
The elder Neal came into the industry by
taking on the only job he could find during the Great
Depression. Eventually, he worked his way up at a laundry
plant, purchasing it in 1946. It was there that John Neal
learned firsthand about cleaning textiles and other helpful
skills.
“When I got old enough, I drove as
a relief driver in the summer and on vacations,” he
recalled. “Prior to that, I washed windows and helped
sort clothing. I can remember having to sort women’s
underwear and all these women that worked down there would make
fun of me. I can still remember that to this day because I was
so embarrassed. I paid my dues.”
Though he worked hard for his
father’s company, Neal had designs on a legal career. One
of his early passions was participating on the debate team in
high school.
A year after graduation, he attended
Hutchinson Community College and joined the school’s
debate team which won the national debate program that year.
Afterward, he transferred to the University of Kansas where he
studied political science and international relations.
While on campus, he reunited with a
former high school classmate, Darla, and married her in 1963,
the same year he graduated. The young couple moved to Spain
during their first year of marriage after Neal received a
Fullbright Scholarship.
“I went to the University of
Madrid. That didn’t work out very well,” he
recalled. “It turns out, I didn’t know Spanish well
enough.”
The language barrier was only part of the
problem, though. The couple also felt extremely homesick for
the Sunflower state.
“While we were down there, we
decided that we really wanted to put our roots down somewhere
near our home,” he said.
Upon moving back to Kansas, Neal attended
law school at the University of Kansas while his wife taught
junior high school. By 1967, he earned a spot at the largest
law firm in the state — Foulston Siefkin in Witchita
— and cut his teeth on personal injury cases.
“The firm treated me
fantastically,” he recalled. “I did well. I enjoyed
parts of it, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to spend the rest
of my life trying lawsuits. I was really surprised at that
because that’s what I thought I wanted to do.”
Finding himself at a crossroads in his
life, it was tragedy that provided him with a new direction. In
1969, Neal’s father died of a heart attack so he opted to
move back to Hutchinson and buy the family cleaning business
from his mother and brothers.
Unfortunately, he took control of the
reins at a bad time. Obstacles such as the polyester
revolution, new minimum wage laws for laundries and the
emergence of permanent press and doubleknit garments made his
first five years inordinately stressful.
“The drycleaning industry went into
a slump about the time I got there,” he said. “I
thought it would surely be an easy job — if you
could be a lawyer, you could be a businessman — but I
quickly had my eyes opened.”
With the help of an old family friend,
Bob Shmalberg, and consultant John Hill, Neal managed to get
the business back on a successful track.
In 1974, he closed down the slumping
drycleaning operations and concentrated on the dust control and
rental uniform and linen aspect of Ineeda, which proved to be a
lucrative field for the next 20 years.
By 1994, Neal acquired two drycleaning
plants and slowly shifted his business back in the other
direction. He sold the company’s rental division to
Aramark.
It was at that point in his life that he
wanted to dedicate most of his spare time to public service and
community support, including a stint on the city council for
four years and a term as mayor. He also served as president of
the Hutchinson Chamber of Commerce and worked as a board member
for the local hospital and the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space
Center.
Neal didn’t forget about the
drycleaning industry, however. He also found time to fulfill
duties as the president of the Mid-America Fabricare
Association and the Textile Rental Service Association.
During his 2003 interview, he noted that
his proudest public service accomplishment was his work on the
state’s Dry Cleaning Facility Release Trust Fund. Once
implemented, the fund levied a surcharge on gallons of perc and
gross receipts for drycleaners in order to raise money for
assistance in cleaning up environmentally-contaminated sites.
“We met with an attorney that was
with the firm I had been with in Witchita many years before and
he drafted the law, which we worked with him on and proofed and
everything,” he recalled.
“Then, it got submitted to the
Kansas Legislature when they went into session in mid-to-late
January of 1995. By April 16 of that year, it was signed by the
governor. It was just an unheard of thing that a major piece of
legislation like this could be drafted, proposed and signed
into law all in the same year. It was due to the concerted
effort of drycleaners across the state.”
For his role in the proceedings, IFI
honored Neal with a Legislative Regulatory award in 2001. Neal,
however, was just happy to help his fellow cleaners.
“We’ve been very fortunate
and I credit that state law with saving my business, along with
70 to 80 other cleaners who are now part of the protection of
that fund,” he said. “I would have been a Superfund
site at one of my sites — maybe both of them had it not
been for that. As a Superfund site, I would have been out of
business by now.”
Instead, the business continued to
thrive, even when his health took a turn for the worse. In
2002, he was diagnosed with chronic lymphocyctic leukemia. The
deadly disease brought back painful memories of John and Darla
Neal’s first son, Michael, who died in 1972 of acute
lymphocyctic leukemia at almost four years old.
Despite all of the hardship he faced,
Neal was determined to be a survivor.
“It has been a whole new chapter to
my life. It made me change some priorities and realize
what’s really important,” he explained. “One
of the neat things that has happened is that my family and
friends and employees have been so supportive. I am just so
grateful.”
He was particularly proud of the way his
family offered their emotional support. One gesture that stood
out in his mind was when his son David opted to participate in
the 26.2-mile Walt Disney Marathon for Leukemia in 2003.
“He had never run a marathon
before,” Neal said. “He raised over $34,000 for
leukemia as a runner and came in as the largest fundraiser in
the entire Walt Disney marathon — out of 26,000
runners.”
Such inspiration and support helped guide
Neal through his constant struggle with the disease. During his
interview two years ago, he strongly believed that we was still
getting the most out of his life on a daily basis.
“I’ve been undergoing
chemo-therapy every three weeks. It’s not an onerous
thing — other than it leaves me feeling pretty wiped out
for three or four days. But the rest of the time I feel good
and can do most of the things that I want to do,” he
said.
Neal is survived by his wife, Darla, and
his sons, Matt and David.
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