Hope Phillips, a former middle school principal at the Taipei American School (TAS) and a resident of Taipei for 46 years, passed away peacefully in her sleep at the age of 91 in Washington on Thursday last week.
She moved to Taiwan in 1955 with her second husband, Captain Robert Phillips, a cholera expert with the US Navy Medical Corps who was assigned to set up the US Naval Medical Research Unit No. 2 in Taipei, and they raised six children.
The family continued to reside in Taipei after Robert Phillips retired from the US Navy in 1967 and became director of the Pakistan-SEATO Cholera Research Laboratory. He died in 1976.
Hope Phillips began her career at TAS as an English teacher, and worked as college counselor and later middle school principal.
After retiring from the school, she became executive director of the American Bureau for Medical Advancement in China, but maintained a connection with TAS, serving on the school board and, as alumnae liaison, taking part in many school reunion activities, both in Taiwan and abroad.
She was a long-time member of the Taipei International Women’s Club, serving as the organization’s president from 1957 to 1958, and was an active participant in many expatriate events over the decades.
She was known for her willingness to review and edit scientific papers for doctoral students from all over Taiwan and mentor Vassar graduates, and was often in demand as a speaker on life in Taipei.
In 1998 and 1999, she again worked at TAS to coordinate the school’s 50th anniversary celebrations, which took place over the 1999 to 2000 school year.
In 2001, she moved back to the US, living for several years in San Antonio, Texas, before moving to Washington.
Born in New Hartford, New York, in 1923, Hope Phillips went to Vassar College, and married Gerald Dale, who was killed in action in World War II. Before moving to Taipei, she lived in London and Cairo, where she worked for the US government and met Robert Phillips. While her family stayed in Taipei, she return to the US in the late 1960s to obtain a masters’ degree from Colombia University.
She is survived by her six children and 11 grandchildren.
As per her wishes, no funeral or memorial services have been scheduled, but donations in her name may be made to the Hope N.F. Phillips Scholarship Fund, which provides needs-based aid to TAS students (www.tas.edu.tw/page.cfm?p=470), or to the Captain Gerald Fitzgerald Dale Senior Scholarship fund at Hamilton College in New York state (my.hamilton.edu/makeagift).
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai