November 11, 2004

OBITUARIES

James O. Phillips of Yellow Springs died on Saturday, Nov. 6, in Friends Care Community. He was 87.

Born on Aug. 11, 1917, in Indianapolis, he was the son of Reginald and Zolene (Ganaway) Phillips.

Mr. Phillips retired from the United States Army with 20 years of service and from DESCI of Dayton. He was a member of Central Chapel AME Church, where he was a former trustee and a member of the Usher Board. He was a member of the John Roan Post No. 517–Xenia and the Yellow Springs Men’s Group. He was an avid bowler and enjoyed fishing and hunting.

He was preceded in death by his parents.

He is survived by his loving wife, Alyce Phillips of Yellow Springs; a sister-in-law, Mary Helen Dunn; a nephew and his wife, Dr. William and Carol Dunn; a great-niece, Shawn Spells, all of Indianapolis; and special friends, Paul and Betty Ford of Yellow Springs.

Services were held Tuesday, Nov. 9, at Central Chapel AME Church, with burial following in Glen Forest Cemetery. Arrangements were handled by Porter-Qualls Funeral Home.

Daniel Katz-Stein

Daniel Katz-Stein of Yellow Springs died Friday, Nov. 5, of brain cancer at Hospice of Dayton. He was 41.

Dan grew up in Nelson County, Va., and graduated from Antioch College in 1987 with a B.S. in communications. He worked for YSI Incorporated in information services, HR and communications from 1987 to 2002. He and Abi Katz-Stein were married for 17 years and were active in the Yellow Springs Havurah with their son, Zachary, 14, and daughter, Hana, 10.

Dan loved computers, photography, bicycling, running and the Blue Ridge Mountains. His athletic, energetic side took him skiing and on trips to New York and Thailand, and his technophile side drove him to the cutting edge of scientific advancement. He was always up on the latest technology, becoming savvy with computers, then video cameras, then the Internet well before they became popular, his longtime college friend Sam Eckenrode said. He volunteered for more than 10 years teaching and helping Antioch School students and faculty in the computer field.

In computer support at YSI, Dan explained things in a gentle way and wanted to help people learn how to use technology as a useful tool, co-worker David Turner said. He had the creative and logical ability to go from ambiguity to linear thinking to solve problems and was held in high regard at work for his ability to connect to people in group decision-making processes, Turner said.

The active life Dan led while healthy was sustained through humor and connection with friends and family while he was ill. When he was diagnosed with a brain tumor in February 1995, he began keeping an Internet journal where he explored feelings, experiences and spiritual growth through his almost 10 years of cancer treatment. While family remained a central support for him during his illness, Dan also reached out to other community members to talk about religious thought, world travel, photography, Zac and Hana, and the philosophy of life in the face of death.

“My story is a spiritual and medical one. Journey with me through this experience,” he wrote at the opening of his Weblog at www.life.katzstein.com.

In his journal entries, he showed a passion for discovery and candidly expressed his vast spectrum of emotions. He talked honestly of fear, crying, gaining hope and strength through others, emotional healing and self-revelation. “I continue to swim, hold my breath, and pray, trying to figure things out. Maybe March will bring a fresh breath of air,” he wrote in February 2004.

Dan was intensely inquisitive and always wanted to figure things out, even with problems like his illness, which was bigger than logic and not always “figure-out-able,” Eckenrode said.

In October he began to reach peace with his process. “What I love about this journey is that it’s bringing a lot of loose ends of my life together in my mind and I’ve found I’m waiting for the next thing and I’m excited about it. I’m not scared.…I feel things are right and like they should be. So there is no struggle,” he wrote.

“It was just a measure of Dan’s generosity and spirit that he wanted to use his experience to help others learn,” Eckenrode said.

At Dan’s memorial service on Sunday, Nov. 7, at Rockford Chapel, officiant Rabbi David Burstein shared a few things that Dan had told him in the last few weeks of his life. In his dreams, Dan began to see things that comforted him and made it more difficult to come back to his body. Two things became clear to him during this journey: we are not alone and the world will take care of us.

Dan was preceded in death by his father, Philip Stein.

In addition to his wife and children, Dan is survived by his mother, Phyllis Stein, and stepfather, Valerian D’Souza; stepmother, Carole Armel Stein; and brother, Jonah Stein, formerly of Yellow Springs.

In lieu of flowers, he requested that donations be made to the Dan Katz-Stein Technology Fund at the Antioch School, P.O. Box 242, Yellow Springs.