The Citizen, 2016-03-31, Page 11THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 31, 2016. PAGE 11.
Years of Lions, school items bear Phillips' mark
Continued from page 10
teachers, he left school to work just
ahead of his 16th birthday.
He began as a messenger boy,
helping to deliver trophies for an
engraver, when one day his boss,
Fred Light, asked him if he could
draw.
Phillips remembers the man
dropping a copy of the Montreal
Gazette on the table and asking the
young man to replicate the
newspaper's flag. He did a good job
and was given a second test, which
he again passed with flying colours.
A life of service
Blyth's Ernie Phillips was among a number of Blyth Lions Club members recognized for their
decades of dedication last year. The group received lifetime memberships and one Melvin
Jones Fellowship, the highest honour a Lions can receive, was handed out. Frank Hallahan,
Ernie Phillips, Bill Logue and Gord Jenkins all received Multiple District A Lifetime
Memberships at the meeting, while Steve Howson, the club's longtime treasurer became a
Melvin Jones Fellow. The group was honoured by Multiple District A Council Chair Bob Tanner,
from the Petrolia Lions Club, who was at the meeting. From left: Hallahan, Phillips, Logue,
Howson, Jenkins and Tanner. (File photo)
After impressing the man in
charge, Phillips was put on track for
an apprenticeship and three years
later he was engraving items,
officially starting his career in 1949.
He worked for Light for 19 years
in Montreal and would eventually
strike out on his own, working
independently for another 10 before
moving to the Blyth area.
During that time, Phillips worked
on a number of memorable projects.
He's engraved the Canadian Football
League's Grey Cup, the Brier
Trophy (for the winner of the annual
Canadian men's curling
championship) and countless other
accolades for ski clubs, curling clubs
and hockey teams. He also worked
on beer steins for a number of
clients, including a local Irish rugby
team and the Royal Canadian Air
Force.
One of Phillips' most memorable
creations, and definitely his most
challenging, was a pair of Canadian
maple carvings he completed for
Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau as a
gift for the Chinese government.
Chinese words, he said, needed to
be engraved with such accuracy and
sophistication that it tested his
nerves. The smallest deviation could
change the word entirely.
While Phillips' successes are
many, there were definitely some
jobs he hated to see. Silverware was
one Phillips never liked engraving.
Very difficult and intricate, he said, it
wasn't his favourite pastime.
It was in 1968 that he married
Emily Smith. They would have two
children, Karen and Leslie and are
now grandparents to four.
In the late 1970s, the Phillips
family moved to Huron County.
Emily had gone long enough no
longer fulfilling her calling as a
nurse, for a variety of reasons, and
they decided they needed to move to
Ontario for that to happen.
Ernie and Emily had always
wanted to move into a rural setting to
raise their family, but they originally
had their eyes on a Scottish farming
community along the Ottawa River.
However, with the changing
language laws, they wanted to move
to rural Ontario.
Emily found a job as an obstetrical
nurse in Wingham and they moved
to their current location where Ernie
would continue engraving out of
their Moncrieff Road home.
The Phillips family settled in well
in the Blyth area and while Emily
plied her trade just north of their
home, Ernie continued working, but
also giving back to the community in
a variety of ways.
For decades, Ernie would engrave
annual awards and sports medals for
Blyth Public School free of charge
and he has been a member of the
Blyth Lions Club for over 30 years.
As a member of the club, Ernie
has spent decades penning
membership certificates for new
Lions and continues to this day. If
someone has joined the Lions in the
last 25-30 years, there's a good
chance the name on their
membership certificate was written
by the same hand that engraved the
Stanley Cup.
Early last month, Phillips was
among a group of locals honoured
by the Ministry of Citizenship,
Immigration and International Trade
with an Ontario Volunteer Service
Award for his time with the Lions
Club.
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