Philip K. Ellrott was born on July 5th, 1953 and passed away May 19th, 2020, at the age of 66 due to complications related to cancer. Phil was a scholar, pastor, missionary and a teacher. He was a loving husband, father, and a doting grandfather.
Phil was never afraid of exploring new frontiers and seeing the world. His childhood was split between his hometown of El Cajon, California and Massachusetts. He was the co-captain of his high school football team and played under the number 51. His love of football continued throughout his life as he rooted for his hometown team, the San Diego Chargers.
Phil spent a year of college in Saskatchewan, Canada at Briercrest Bible Institute and then moved back to El Cajon to attend Christian Heritage College. There he met the love of his life, his one, Kim Darwin, and they married on May 15th, 1976. One week later, they moved to Portland, Oregon so that Phil could pursue his Master of Divinity at Western Seminary. His eldest son Kyle was born during that time as Phil balanced a busy job at UPS with earning his degree. This work ethic would be something that he instilled into his children. At UPS he started as a loader and was shortly promoted to night supervisor. After three short years, the family moved on to Dallas, Texas, where Phil attended Dallas Theological Seminary and worked alongside his brother-in-law building pools in the hot Texas weather. While in Texas, they welcomed their second son, Travis. The next path on their life journey led them to Medford, Oregon where Phil worked as an assistant pastor at First Baptist Church. Their youngest son Jared was born while living in Medford. After several years of working at the church, Phil felt the calling to pursue missionary work.
He moved his family to Brazil in 1990, spending one year in Campinas for language school and then two years in the capital Brasilia to work at a seminary and to preach at the International Baptist Church. After a year of furlough in Medford, he moved on to Cascais, Portugal to work as the pastor of the International Christian Church. He left missionary work and returned to the United States in 1996 to take a job as the pastor of King City Bible Church.
In 2002, Phil pivoted to elementary school education, starting with substitute teaching while earning his teaching credentials. Eventually, through hard work, intelligence, and street smarts, Phil became a sixth grade math and science teacher at Vista Verde Middle School in Greenfield, California. Over the course of his teaching career at Vista Verde, Phil became the lead math teacher and the head of the school's teachers union. He challenged his students to grow and succeed, always adapting and integrating new technology into the classroom. He was also very involved in extracurricular teaching and mentorship. As he moved into his second career as an educator, he supported his wife as she started a new career as a nurse. It was at this point in their lives that Phil and Kim settled in Soledad, California. Living near the rolling hills of Monterey wine country also provided an opportunity for moonlighting at the Hahn winery. For 10 years, Phil spent part of his weekends pouring wine, making new friends and enjoying the beautiful views of the hills and countryside of Central California.
Phil retired in 2018 and moved back to Oceanside so that his wife could enjoy her retirement in her hometown. He had been retired for only a little over a year when he received the cancer diagnosis.
Throughout his life he was always active, never content to sit for too long, whether playing sports, weightlifting and working out, riding his bike, or tackling home projects. Even as his health declined, he often talked about going back to the gym. He remained committed to the Chargers and the Padres with unwavering devotion.
He loved riding his Harley and collected Harley Davidson shirts from all of his travels. He and his wife rode often, with frequent trips up and down the California coast and to longer destinations including Laughlin Navada, Prescott Arizona, and Yosemite National Park.
He loved his children deeply and was a model father. He was always generous, trying to understand and encourage their interests, rather than imposing his own, even when those interests were far afield from what he already knew. He helped to support each of them through college, from taking out the loans that were needed, to helping them move on to campus, and to buying them the essentials. Two of his sons earned PhDs in their respective fields, and his third son received a bachelor's degree and went on to become a journeyman electrician. He officiated the weddings of his three sons and watched proudly as they became fathers themselves.
He loved gardening, every new house presented a new backyard for him to work on. Over the years he would transform patches of dirt and weeds into oases of calm and beauty. Another one of his passions was barbecuing and cooking. Phil loved watching cooking shows, discovering new restaurants and trying out new recipes and techniques. He was always willing to cook baby-back ribs on his Traeger for his sons or even try pulled-pork on request. He was the anchor for Thanksgiving meals and Christmas feasts, cooking turkeys, prime rib roasts, his famous macaroni and cheese, and grilling up rib-eye steaks.
As his children grew up and started families of their own, his favorite role became that of the doting grandfather. He planned frequent trips, racking up frequent flyer miles and spending days in the car to see each of his grandchildren. He would often make trips from his home in Soledad, California to Portland, Oregon, a two day drive, to see his grandchildren up there. He tried to attend every birthday party and holiday, and often went for no particular reasons other than he did not want to wait too long without seeing them.
To his friends and family, Phil was the nicest man they knew; warm, generous, steady, loyal and supportive. He was the kind of person who could strike up a conversation with anyone, easily making quick friends with cashiers and waitstaff, taking a sincere interest in their lives. Those who knew him, considered him to be a man’s man; a man of integrity and kindness. His sons looked up to him as a role model. To them, he defined what it meant to be a good person.
His last year was marked by cancer. Despite the multiple surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation treatments, he never took a "why me" attitude and his spirit remained strong. During his hospital stays, Phil would take the time to learn all the nurses' names who were attending to him and would make jokes and keep a positive attitude. The last meal Phil cooked was a Christmas cioppino for his son Travis' family and his in-laws, who had come all the way from Japan. He cooked this feast just two months after having extensive surgery.
Just days before his passing, Phil and Kim celebrated their 44th wedding anniversary.
Phil is survived by his wife Kim Ellrott, his sons Kyle, Travis and Jared, his six grandchildren and his brother Rick Ellrott and sister Tanya Ellrott Thomas.
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