Arties R. Phillips, Jr. – circa 1940
Arties Phillips was born on February 4, 1928 in Chicago at St. Luke’s Hospital at 1400 S. Michigan Blvd. to Arties R. Phillips Sr. (03/28/1898 – 1976) and Ruby Lee (Jones) Phillips (11/04/1905 – 1950). The family lived on Chicago’s South Side in the Woodlawn area and attended the Woodlawn AME Church. Young Arties attended the McCosh Elementary School, graduating in 1943, and then the Englewood High School and Tilden Technical High School, graduating in 1947. He then attended the Payne Theological Seminary and the Moody Bible Institute.
The Scouting experience for Arties began in 1937 at age 9, when he joined the Cub Scout Pack located at the Cosmopolitan Community Church at 5249 S. Wabash Av. At age 12, he graduated into Boy Scout Troop 1542 sponsored by the Woodlawn AME Church at 6456 S. Evans Av. in Chicago. During his Scouting tenure, Arties achieved the rank of First Class Scout and held the position of Assistant Patrol Leader. Arties took the bus in the summer of 1942 at age 14 to Camp Belnap at Owasippe, the start of a lifelong love for the camp and its people. Belnap was established by the Chicago Council as a camp for African American Campers. Arties remembers the car trips to Owasippe with his Scoutmaster, Lafayette Morrison and Mr. Harris and would later return in 1961 as an adult Scouter to camp at Wilderness, Stuart, West, and Beard.
After his Scouting career as a youth, Arties joined the U.S. Navy and served from 1948 to 1952 on the aircraft carrier the U.S.S. Leyte (CV-32); he received an Honorable discharge in 1952. The military was good for Arties in other ways. He met his wife Marye Charles in Newport, Rhode Island in 1949 while he was serving on the Leyte, working in the engineering department as a 3rd Class Machinist Mate. Arties and Marye wed on February 4, 1950 and have been married for 63 years, and ultimately had a family of six – Oreitha, Arties III, Derrick, Clifford, Adrienne, and Janice. Three of his children are visually impaired and four have Master’s degrees.
Arties worked for 35 years at the Regensteiner Publishing Company, first as a Storeroom Supervisor and finally as a Purchasing Agent at the time of his retirement.
Scouting as an adult for Arties started in 1960 as a Training Chairman. This quickly led to other areas of service to youth including, Assistant Scoutmaster, Scoutmaster, Neighborhood Commissioner occurring in the Washington Park, Grant, Midway, South Shore, and currently, the Greater Southside District. For his efforts, he has been awarded the National Scouters’ Training Award, the Scoutmaster’s Training Award, the Award of Merit, the Good Scout Award, as well as Woodbadge Beads in 1968. He received the Silver Beaver Award in 1970, the Bronze Bighorn Award in 1975, the Silver Antelope in 2004, and was the Whitney Young Honoree in 2005.
Outside of Scouting, Arties is a 33rd Degree Mason and an Itinerant Elder of the Woodlawn African Methodist Episcopal Church. He served as a chaplain for three successive National Order of the Arrow contingents from Chicago Area Council. He also served as the Commectional Boy Scout Director for the A.M.E. Church from 1993-2002, and as a Member-at-Large of the B.S.A. National Relationship Committee from 2002 to the present time. When asked to reflect about the Vigil Honor and life, Arties notes, “Read and study the Ten Commandments, then study the twelve points of the Scout Law, because if you follow the Scout Laws and Ten Commandments you will always have a good foundation for the rest of your life. And finally, never put yourself down, always look up, and strive to be the best in whatever you do!”
Rev. Arties R. Phillips, Jr. – photo taken at the 2012 Owasippe Lodge #7 Vigil Alumni Dinner