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).
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