14 Jan Phylis Stouder Retires from Healthy Ministry Resources
Phylis Stouder, right, displaying the Nutcracker soldier given as a parting gift. On the left is Marilyn Waters, the bookstore manager. Phylis and Marilyn have been a team for about 15 years.
Healthy Ministry Resources said good-bye to Phylis Stouder, who has worked there since October 1986. That’s 22 years.
On Tuesday, January 13, we held a farewell luncheon for Phylis at the Habecker Dining Commons at Huntington University. Pat Jones and Jeff Bleijerveld were traveling, but everyone else was there. The staff gave her a couple gifts, including a Nutcracker wooden soldier to add to her collection.
Phylis originally came as a secretary in what was then the Church Services department. I was editor of the monthly United Brethren magazine, and Phylis did a variety of chores for me, and helped out the others in the department–Paul Hirschy, Carlson Becker, Denny Miller–in whatever ways she could.
Since 1993, Phylis has worked primarily with the bookstore. Every quarter, she packages hundreds of boxes of Sunday school materials. She also helps with everyone else’s mailings–the Bishop’s office, Global Ministries, you name it. If you receive something from the national office, Phylis probably had her hands on it.
Phylis and her husband, Lowell, are members of College Park UB church in Huntington. They spent most of their married lives running a dairy farm (Lowell got out of that a while back). They’re also big Purdue fans. Please don’t ask Phylis for her opinion of Bobby Knight.
We’ll miss Phylis a lot. She worked hard and conscientiously, willing to do anything asked of her.
We’ll miss Phylis a lot. She worked hard and conscientiously, willing to do anything asked of her.
Over the years, she learned how to do some of everything, an office jack-of-all-trades. We’ll miss her good sense of humor.
Actually, Phylis will keep coming back occasionally to help in the bookstore or do mailings or whatever. But she’s basically retired, no regular hours. Which is what she wanted.
Twice a week, we start the day with office devotions. After our prayer time, Phylis would always say, “Have a nice day.” That was our signal to head to our desks and get started. We haven’t decided who will say that now.
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