A memorial service followed by interment will be held in Columbia Missouri at Memorial Park Funeral home on Monday February 24 at 2 pm.
He is survived by his wife, Imee; sister Lisa Phillips of Columbia; brothers Christopher (Cherrie) Phillips of Phoenix, AZ and Michael (Susan) Phillips of Blue Springs; step-mother Sylvia Phillips of Columbia and several nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents Alex and Alice (Fitz) Phillips of Columbia.
He was born on Aug. 29, 1965 in Columbia. He graduated from Rock Bridge High School in 1984. After graduating he worked in various food service jobs in and around Columbia including the Katy Station restaurant, Domino’s pizza and Papa John’s pizza. In his free time he taught himself computer programing and in 2001 decided to return to school and pursue a degree in that field. He earned an A.A.S. in Computer Information Systems from Moberly Area Community College in 2003, a B.S. in Computer Science from Columbia College in 2005, became a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Tennessee later in 2005, and earned his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Tennessee in 2015. His final position was as a Postdoctoral research associate at the University of Tennessee where his research interests included development of algorithms and analytic techniques for high throughput genetics and genomics data, application of graph algorithms to problems in computational biology, time series analysis in developmental biology, and multipartite graph algorithms for heterogeneous data. Academic awards he earned during this time include: Outstanding Computer Science Student, Columbia College, 2004, ACM/IEEE CS Teaching Assistant of the Year, University of Tennessee, 2012, and Chancellor's Citation for Extraordinary Professional Promise, University of Tennessee, 2014.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the American Heart Association,7272 Greenville Avenue; Dallas, TX 75231-4596.
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