Memorial
Years ago, Phillip DeWees had just returned home from doing errands when he discovered a bank teller had overpaid him. So he got in his car and drove back across town to repay her — 28 cents.
“He was so humble,” said his daughter Coleen Colton. “He always downplayed everything he did.”
Except for a stint with the U.S. Army in South Korea, which he called a land that God forgot, and a summer with the U.S. Forest Service in New Mexico, Phil lived his entire life in Marion. He died Tuesday in neighboring Hiawatha at the age of 90.
Phil was a member of Marion High School’s Class of ’53 and wrestled, played football and sang in the choir at Coe College in Cedar Rapids. He was a fan of the Chicago Bears beginning in the days of leather helmets. Phil made candles and kept bees. For years, he worked for FMC, a construction-equipment company. But at heart, Phil DeWees was an artist.
Phil and his wife, the late Virginia Moore DeWees, performed as a folk-music duo, appearing at local events including two 1960s productions of the Cedar Rapids Community Theater, “Spoon River Anthology”and “Dark of the Moon,” and in concert at Anamosa State Penitentiary. Phil could pick up a guitar, banjo, mandolin or any of a variety of more obscure stringed instruments and play beautifully in an array of styles, from bluegrass to standards to jazz to church to rock. He performed pop music with a band called The Stringdusters at weddings and other hired gigs. He loved all of it, with the possible exception of the song “Cocaine,” popularized by Eric Clapton. “I don’t like to play that,” he said. “But people request it all the time.” He performed at dances as recently as a few years ago. His favorite musicians included Chet Atkins, Joe Pass and Bela Fleck.
He was also an expert woodworker. He produced bowls, vases, jewelry boxes, mirrors, tops and other keepsakes. He sold the pieces at farmers’ markets and gave them as gifts to friends and family. He also made cradles, stilts, step-stools and other items for his grandchildren.
Phillip Chandler DeWees was born Sept. 24, 1934, at the family home in Marion. When he was a boy, the town had a little over 4,000 residents and his father sometimes traveled on snow-covered streets in a sleigh pulled by work horses. Today, Marion’s population is more than 40,000 and growing. “This used to be fields,” he’d often say while driving through one of the town’s many new subdivisions. His wife, Virginia, parents Laurence DeWees and Helen Neal DeWees, and his siblings, Neal DeWees and June McNaughton, predecease him.
His middle name, Chandler, is in remembrance of a maternal great-grandfather, Chandlee Talbot, who rode the legendary Pony Express. Phil was exceptionally proud of Chandlee, and hung his portrait in his home.
Phil is survived by his children, Tim DeWees of Marion; Coleen Colton of Mahtomedi, Minn.; and Janelle Ivry of Ramsey, N.J.; and grandchildren Kylie DeWees of Chicago; Chandler DeWees of Cedar Rapids and his wife Janessa Klein DeWees; Courtney Colton of New Ulm, Minn.; Garrett Colton of Morris, Minn.; Max Ivry of Ramsey, N.J.; Evelyn Ivry of Worcester, Mass., and Isabel Ivry of Poughkeepsie, N.Y. He was also especially close to the people lucky enough to marry into the family: Lisa Clarke DeWees, Paul Colton and Bob Ivry.
Phil was a big fan of his grandkids. When they were small, he got a kick out of their shenanigans — his rollicking laughter could often be heard over their playing. Once he was a day or two late with a birthday card. “I am dessicated with mortification,” he wrote.
His kindness, honesty and humility will be his legacy. Also the way he harnessed his bountiful creativity to solve problems. One Halloween, the family waited too long to shop for a pumpkin and there weren’t any to be found. So Phil made a frame out of wood, fashioned a jack-o-lantern out of papier-maché, spray-painted it neon orange and put a black light inside.
His children say the permanent pumpkin may still exist. They’ll probably find it in the garage. They say their father never threw anything away.
Visitation will be held from 9-11 AM on Tuesday, April 8, 2025, at Cedar Memorial Chapel of Memories. The Funeral Service will follow at 11:00 AM. Interment will be in Cedar Memorial Park Cemetery.
Memorials may be directed to Horizons Meals on Wheels in Cedar Rapids.