Phillips T. Bland

Dr. P.T. Bland, age 87 of Westby, died Friday, April 15, 2011. Phillips T. Bland, MD died at his home in on April 15, 2011. He was born in Cumberland, Wisconsin on September 2, 1923 to Fredrick and Anne Odell Bland. He graduated from Ripon High School in 1941, where he starred in football, basketball and tennis. He attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison, becoming a member of the Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Omega Alpha honor societies, and graduating from the University of Wisconsin Medical School in 1947. During this time he married the love of his life, Marilyn Skrivseth in Green Bay on December 23, 1944. He interned at Philadelphia General Hospital in 1947 and 1948. Phillips was in the V-12 college training program during World War II, at which time he continued his medical education at Great Lakes Naval Station. During the Korean Conflict, he was stationed at the Jacksonville Naval Air Station in Florida. From 1948 to 1952, Phillips practiced medicine in Wittenberg, Wisconsin. He then moved with his family to Westby, where he continued to practice medicine until his retirement in 2006. Together with his good friends, Drs. V. A. Brenden, DDS, and Warren Otterson, MD, he built the Westby Clinic in 1961. He had strong working relationships with a number of partners, including Warren Otterson, MD, Timm Zimmermann, MD, Jonathan Screnock, MD and William Calkins, MD. He was a Staff Physician at Vernon Memorial Hospital for 57 years. It was said of him that his patients felt better as soon as he walked into the room. He especially enjoyed obstetrics, delivering over 2500 babies in his career. Once established in Westby, Phillips was asked by Dr. William S. Middleton of the University of Wisconsin Medical School to become the youngest preceptor in the schools program. He mentored hundreds of young medical students from 1954-2011, inspiring many to pursue careers in general practice. He received the Max Fox Preceptor Award two times for his distinguished teaching. In 1991, Phillips was awarded the Ralph Hawley Distinguished Service Award by the UW Medical School, an award given to graduates who have contributed to the medical profession and the well-being of the community. Phillips was a sterling example of the community servant, as evidenced by his contributions as Medical Director of the Norseland Nursing Home, President of the Westby Area District School Board, three-time president of the Snowflake Ski Club, Westby City Health Officer, Vernon County Coroner, Team Physician to the U.S. Ski Team, Medical Director of Vernon Memorial Hospital, Medical Director of the Hospice Committee at Vernon Memorial Hospital, member of the State Medical Society, member of the Commission on Scientific Medicine, President of the Wisconsin Medical Alumni, and team physician to the Westby High School football team for many years. He sponsored the kite-flying competition at Westbys Syttende Mai celebration for many years as well as the marble game for the Westby Optimist Club at the Viroqua Wild West Days. Phillips was equally regarded in the ski-jumping community. He was head of the USSA Ski Jump Engineering Committee and a member of the FIS Ski Jump Engineering Committee. He designed over 30 ski jumping hills around the world, a self-taught avocation that developed out of a desire to reduce injuries in the sport. Along with his professional pursuits and love of ski jumping, Phillips found time to be an avid reader, to do the New York Times crossword puzzle every day, to enjoy a good joke, to listen to great jazz, to smoke a good cigar and to enrich the lives of everyone he met. Phillips is survived by his wife of 66 years, Marilyn; children Susan (David) Anderson, Bruce, Robert (Cheryl) and Sarah (Theodore Maglio); daughter-in-law Elizabeth Lange; grandchildren Matthew Anderson, Rachel Anderson, Aaron Bland, Robin Bland, Thomas Bland, Steven Bland, Teddy Maglio; great-grandchild Kendall Nachreiner; nieces, nephews and many dear friends. The family wishes to thank the Vernon Memorial Home Health Care Agency and Hospice Program and especially Dr. William Calkins for their thoughtful and attentive care. A celebration of life will be held on Saturday, April 23rd, at Vosseteig Funeral Home, 708 S. Main Street, Westby, WI, from 1:00 to 5:00 P.M. Inurnment at a later date at McKinley Cemetery, Loraine, WI. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be sent to: Vernon Memorial Hospice House, Fine Arts Foundation of the Westby Area (F.A.F.W.A.), The University of Wisconsin Medical School, Snowflake Ski Club, The Westby Norse Fund -- No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less as well as if a promontory were, as well as any manner of thy friends or of thine own were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. Meditation XVII Devotions upon Emergent Occasions John Donne The Vosseteig Funeral Home of Westby is serving the family.