Robert Lewis Phelps

Robert Phelps Life Story -

I was born in Chula Vista, CA. At the time it was mostly a Navy town of 12,000 south of San Diego. My dad was a Navy CPO, stationed aboard ship in the Far East for most of his career. Briefly, in the late 50’s he was stationed in Corpus Christi (still aboard a ship in the Far East). It was in Corpus that I attended kindergarten and first grade, the longest school days of my life. Both were in a Catholic school that started at 7:30 in the morning and ended at 3:30 in the afternoon. Not being Catholic, the black and white habits of the nuns, the hundreds of lit candles is the huge and dark Sanctuary, and most of all, the extra thick yardsticks the teachers used to dole out demerits at the end of each school, had a lasting impression. Oh, I lost my tooth front upper teeth while there and learned to talk with a Texas drawl (much more prevalent back then) but could never say words that began with “sp.” So it was “Mr. Ssss pring, do you play any ssss ports?” Neither of my parents were from Texas, both claimed they could never understand me.

Back in Chula Vista, I wasn’t quite certain what to do with the rest of my life while in high school. I was disappointed to find out I couldn’t join the Peace Corps without a college degree. I was stuck in a “B” grade rut, meaning if I didn’t try at all I usually could get a “B-” and if I worked my tail off I often was rewarded with a “B+” grade. I wasn’t able to get any college scholarships and my parents could never afford to send me to college. After graduating I attended a local community college (free to residents at that time). For a year and a half I worked towards an Associates degree in Automotive Technology. Not wanting to become a "grease monkey" the rest of my life I was gullible to a letter from the U.S. Army that said that I had performed really well on some exams I took and they wanted to talk about it with me. Not recalling what exams they could possibly be talking about I went down to the local recruiting office. (BTW, My draft number the previous year was about 110 higher than they took). The recruiting staff sergeant was honest – at first anyway – and admitted they ran out of their stock recruitment letters and sent these at instead. My first hint I should have said “thanks” and left. However, since I was there, he said, why don’t I take a look at what they had to offer. He had two huge 7” binders full of what are called military occupational specialties and asked me what I was interested in. Hmmm. I told him a Smokey-the-Bear park ranger type of job. He went through the binders a couple of times (another clue I failed to heed) and finally settled on “Water Purification Specialist.” This is when he shifted from reality to fantasy trying to appease me. First of all a Water Purification Specialist is someone who operates a water purification unit on the back of a 2 and half ton truck three to five miles back from the front line troops making ditch water drinkable. What did the recruiter tell me? Well, I would be wearing a park ranger uniform testing water quality in various rivers and streams to see if it could be improved upon. Park Ranger uniform, really? I should have ran out of the office. Next was where and how long? Well, if I signed up for two years I was “guaranteed” either my duty station or my occupation. If I signed up for three years I’d get both. So I ended up in Fort Carson, just south of Colorado Springs. I was so naive when I went to basic training and forced to use pistols, rifles and throw grenades I told my drill sergeant I wasn’t supposed to be taking this part of the training, he laughed at me, he cussed me out, and I did a lot of push ups. A little over three years later I left the army.

While in the army I researched and received catalogs from all the colleges accredited by The American Society of Foresters. Because I was living on Federal land at Fort Carson, Colorado State University considered me a non-resident and I couldn’t afford to go there. However, the veteran adviser from the University of Idaho gave me a life line. She told me that the University of Idaho was created before Idaho became a state and it is written into the state constitution that Idaho residents will not pay tuition at the university. And, she said if I had an Idaho address on my honorable military discharge papers I would be considered a resident. AND, she provided me a couple of addresses (students apartments) and a local bank to open an account with. Guess where I went to school?

I started trying to get a “Parks and Wild Land Recreation” degree. At a job fair I found at the odds of getting on a permanent Park Ranger position at that time were slim and none. Looking at the various options at the university I found an Economics of Conservation option so I opted for that. Upon graduating, I tried applying for the Peace Corps again. Had to wait so I took a semester of grad school, which requires one to maintain a 3.0. Exactly what I managed.

In the Peace Corps I became a Business Adviser for two years for the Fontem Coffee and Cocoa Cooperative in Fontem, Cameroon. It was a very interesting place as Fontem is isolated from much of the world during the six months raining season and the roads were impassable. One could (and I did) leave my house at 2:30 in the morning in the raining and hike up mountain passes to catch a “bush” taxi around 9 a.m. to get somewhere that could connect you to the rest of the country. I had a “nice” mud walled house and an outside kitchen and loo. No running water or electricity. For some reason, after returning to the U.S. my desire for camping had waned. My job while there was to bring the accounts up to date and see if the farmers could get paid sooner. I managed to cut the wait time from four years (yep, years) to six months, which was considered almost instant payment.

After returning from Cameroon I became the on-campus Peace Corp recruiter while finishing my master’s degree. And a wonderful thing happened. Somehow, while in the deepest darkest and most isolated part of Africa I became smarter. Don’t know how but I was able to “read” the professors better and understand what they were looking for in regards to getting better grades. Previously, I tried the standard tact of reading through everything, then re-reading through everything again taking notes, and cramming before exams burning the candle on both ends. I no longer needed to do that. The day before an exam I’d go to a movie or play tennis or racquetball, if it was winter.

Once I had my Master’s degree I stayed at the university for almost two years as a Research Associate. Then I found a posting from the University of Illinois Urbana/Champain looking for sabbatics to teach economics at Egerton University in Njoro, Kenya. That sounded fun so I applied. Turns out, to everyone’s surprise they required a Phd so the University of Illinois worked with the Peace Corps to get four of us over there. Four of us went, 3 from Illinois and myself.

Teaching economics in Kenya to university students was probably the most rewarding job I have had. All the kids knew they were extremely fortunate to be selected to attend as some 40 to 50 percent of adults were unemployed at the time. They studied and were attentive. How so? Everyone lived on campus – most faculty and all the students. I decided to hold help sessions but wanted only those who attended to be those wanting help. So I set up the sessions for 5 p.m. on Fridays. Most Fridays, I would have 20 to 80 kids attend. Oh, I forgot to mention the average class size was 60 students, my largest having 462 students.

And my living conditions were better than I have ever had. The U.S. Agency for International Development had just finished building these three story apartment building (flats). I had a brand spanking new top floor large 3 bedroom with high cathedral ceilings, inlaid wood floors, a wall to wall fire place, fully equipped including brand new plates, cups, saucers, knives, forks, spoons, bed, bedding ...everything except my personal clothes and items. While I didn’t have a vehicle of my own the four of us shared a driver that took us where we needed. Not quite on demand but pretty good nevertheless. I had someone work for me (almost a requirement both in Cameroon and Kenya we provided a job with really good wages relative to what they could find elsewhere). I remember coming home at lunch time and Jane was on the sofa tending to her infant. She freaked out that I caught her not working. After calming her down I explained that I paid her to do the job and not by the hour. As long as she did her job properly all was good. After that little episode she became a new person, not nearly as timid. When I left Kenya she and her husband got first dibs on my belongings I was leaving behind.

I spent four years teaching in Kenya, two with the Peace Corps and two on a local contract. I was never richer in my life even though I made maybe $300 a month. What I mean by this is that I was able to live on one third of my gross income and bank two thirds of it. I have never come close to doing this again.

Returning to the U.S. I decided to embark on an entrepreneurial career, opening my own off-set print shop in Vancouver, WA. I learned a couple of valuable lessons. The first was that if I wasn’t the most gung-ho salesperson for my own product I probably shouldn’t be in business. The second, just as important is that I never worked harder or longer or for less than when I was my own boss. The illusion that you’re in charge and have more degrees of freedom was shattered. I enjoyed Kenya because I had a set of guidelines to follow but was left pretty much alone to carry them out. And it is nice to not always be on the clock. After 3 years I managed to “sale” my business. Meaning that I had all kind of leases (e.g., signage, phones, OEM equipment, copiers, building, etc) that someone else assumed responsibility. Afterwards I went to work as the office manager of an Office Supply store. One of my previous customers hired me, liking what I had done with my own business. This was a go nowhere job and, after 3 years, I hired on as an economist with the U.S. Department of Labor.

I moved to Dallas and worked with the Department of Labor within the Bureau of Labor Statistics on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) from 1996 until 2015.

In 2000 I moved from Dallas to Mesquite. While there I started a program called “Casabuilders” where a group of us each summer went to Reynosa, Mexico and built a cinder block house for a needy family. (They would need be considered a home any of us would want to live in.) These were for poor folks moving to northern Mexico for better job opportunities in Mexico. Each family had to help build three other houses before being considered and placed in line to receive a house of their own. And they had to help build their own. We did this for five years until the border gang drug wars made it too dicey for us go cross the border. The first year we built a house I “adopted” (help pay her tuition every year) a little girl entering the first grade. This year she entering her third year of college.

In September of 2012 I signed the papers to move to Frisco Lakes, which I did in March of 2013. I did very little here until I retired at the end of 2015. Early the following year I was a regular in the indoor pool, at least four days a week taking various water classes. By summer time of 2016 I discovered Pickleball and had to make a decision. Would I rather pay $20 a year to play pickleball or $30 a month to take swim classes, both of which I enjoyed. Pickleball won out.

Beginning in 2016 I started volunteering at Hackberry Elementary. For a couple of years I worked with different grades tutoring students in reading and math. The last 3 years I have been tutoring 3rd grade math and helping out the teacher. This year, just started two days ago, and it doesn't sound like they will want volunteers on campus.

Later in 2016 I taught one of several Lifelong Learning courses, all based on computers. The most common ones were about computer security, shopping safely and smartly on the internet, and useful websites for Frisco Lakes residents.

Four years ago I started the Bucket List Adventures group. While it started simply as that, taking bucket list style adventures, we now have more people interested in local day and regional trips and have morphed into the Frisco Lakes Travel Club. Over 650 people have opted into our group. We've had trips as far away as Machu Picchu and as close as downtown Frisco. Next year we have trips planned for Ireland, Yosemite, Black Hills of South Dakota, Scotland and Mexico City. There is no way we could do these trips without the help of our Travel Club board members. What a lot of people don't realize is that we do this with zero perks. We do not collect dues nor do we do receive any discounts or incentives. I guess the biggest benefit we have is being able to put together trips that we like to go on. (Pitch time: we're always looking for more volunteers to help out.)

Robert is survived by his mother Emily Phelps of Chula Vista, CA; sister Kim Coronado of Frisco, TX; nephew Eric Coronado and great nephew Alex Coronado both in Dublin, Ireland.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.stonebriarfh.com for the Phelps family.