FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Contact Lindi Forbes

Executive Director Foundation & Alumni

Labette Community College

620-820-1212

 

Phillips Named Cardinal Citee

 

Arvon Phillips of Parsons has received the highest honor bestowed from the LCC Foundation & Alumni Association for lifetime achievement. He has been named the 2007 Cardinal Citation Recipient.

 

The Cardinal Citation Award is presented annually at Commencement. The criteria are: nominee must be a living person who has had significant lifetime achievements to his or her profession, community, state or nation, nominee must have a current or past association with Labette Community College, nominee does not have to be a graduate of LCC

 

Each year Labette Community College and LCC Foundation & Alumni Association recognize an individual for a lifetime of outstanding service to their community and/or to the college. A distinguished panel of volunteers review nominations and recommend a Citee. The Citee is honored the evening of Commencement during a reception for all former Citees, their families, invited guests, and the public. The Citee is presented a plaque and is a speaker at Commencement. The Citee's framed portrait is hung in the Gallery of Cardinal Citation Recipients in the college's main administration building.

Phillips, a southeast Kansas Native, has a wife Bernice, and two sons, Scott & Tracy.

Mr. Phillips graduated from Angola Kansas Grade School in 1948 and Labette County Community High School in 1952. He was also the Senior Class President, Student Council Vice President, and football captain during high school. Phillips was one of 10 children of the Homer & Marchie Phillips Family to Graduate from LCCHS.

Phillips graduated from Labette Community College in 1954. While at LCC, from 1952-1954, he was a three sport letterman in football, basketball and track. He was one of five Phillips brothers to graduate from LCC. He also attended Pittsburg State College from 1955-1956.

While in the military service from 1957-1960, Phillips received honors in Battalion Citation for Outstanding Military Professionalism. He was part of several facets of military including Special Services & Combat Engineers in Fort Devins Massachusetts, Advanced Individual Training Instructor in map reading in Fort Ord California, Amphibious Support Command NCO and 6^th Army Special Services in Fort Lewis Washington. He was a graduate of the NCO Academy in Fort Ord, California.

Phillips had an extensive professional history in the field of Recreation for various communities, notably Parsons. He attended Washburn University from 1961-1963 and during that time was a Recreation Therapist for the Kansas Neurological Institute from 1960-1962. From 1962-1963 he was the Community Center Director for the Topeka Recreation Commission. Phillips was the Parsons Recreation Commission Director from1964-1967 before becoming the Cape Girardeau Missouri, Recreation Director from 1967-1968. Phillips returned to become the Parsons Recreation & Parks Director from 1968-1994.

While working as the Recreation & Parks Director, Phillips oversaw a new community center, seven new ball fields, four new tennis courts and three new community neighborhood parks. He also had a part in establishing Parsons’ first "Community Theater" group & first "Young Actors" group. Among these accomplishments, he also organized Parsons’ first Duplicate Bridge Club.

Phillips said, “The Parsons Community Center being dedicated as the ‘Arvon Phillips Community Center’ in 1995 is one of the most memorible events of my professional career. Being inducted into the ‘Kansas Recreation & Parks Association Hall of Fame’ is another.”

In addition to his professional and family life, Phillips has been involved with various volunteer boards including Kansas Recreation & Parks Executive Committee, Parsons Tree Board, Lake Parsons Board and was a Kansas Hunter Education instructor for over 20 years.