Dr. Charles A. Speas Phillips

He was born at Bonlee, Chatham County, NC, September 15, 1922, son of Diffie Cummings and Martha Speas Phillips. He lived 71 years in Moore County and moved to Well-Spring Retirement Community in Greensboro after he and Florence Hyde Ayers were married in 2002.

In Southern Pines Charles earned his Eagle Scout, and graduated from Southern Pines High School in 1938, before moving on to UNC at Chapel Hill. At UNC he was inducted as a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and graduated in 1942 with a BS in Physics. He graduated from Northwestern University Medical School in 1947, and then stayed in Chicago to intern at Cook County Hospital for three years, completing his indoctrination as a Naval Flight Surgeon.

He had residences in General Surgery and Urology at Hines Veterans Hospital in Illinois, and then moved home to North Carolina to practice surgery at Moore Regional Hospital as a member of the Pinehurst Surgical Clinic.

He served as a doctor for almost fifty-five years, publishing five articles in medical journals and receiving many honors and distinguished positions, including serving as a diplomat of the American Board of Surgery, becoming a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, serving as Chief of Staff and Chief of Surgery at Moore Regional Hospital, and then as president of the North Carolina Surgical Association in 1980. After retiring from surgery in 1980, he practiced primary care medicine in the Sandhills area, during which time he served five years as a part-time surveyor for the Joint Commission for Accreditation of Hospitals.

Charles was active in politics, encouraging conservative Democrats to change their registration to Republican. He served as County Commissioner of Moore County, the first Republican Chairman in almost 100 years. He was committed to his community, serving in Kiwanis for over forty years, and as an elder and member of the choir in the Brownson Memorial Presbyterian Church in Southern Pines. He was also active in the Pinehurst Country Club, The Country Club of North Carolina, Roaring Gap Club, and Greensboro Country Club.

During his full and illustrious life he enjoyed medicine, family, friends, bridge, dancing, golf, tennis, music, and flying. He was an enthusiastic educator, getting his start teaching freshman mathematics at UNC when he was only 19 years old, continuing on to teach anatomy and surgery at UNC Medical School for ten years during his years of active practice of surgery, and most recently, while in his 80s, taught a freshman physics lab at UNC-G.

Dr. Phillips is survived by his wife, Florence Hyde Frazier Ayers Phillips; brother, Lewis Phillips; children, Janet Campbell, Charles Phillips, Nancy Phillips, Elizabeth Brophy; ten grandchildren; and twenty-three great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 11:00 a.m., Saturday, May 28, 2016, at Well-Spring Retirement Community followed by a reception for family and friends.

Memorial gifts may be made to FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital Foundation, PO Box 3000, Pinehurst, NC 28370, or to the charity of donor’s choice.