10/15/2026
Bunn Tate (B.T.) Phillips was a well-known person to many in Richmond County and throughout the state. His work in his church, banking, and Masonry brought him into contact with lots of people.
On December 7, 2016, B.T. and I were having breakfast sitting at the counter in the Holiday Restaurant. Given the remembrance of that fateful day in 1941, I asked B.T. where he was when he heard the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor. B.T. said he was still in high school and on that Sunday he and friends were driving home from church in a 1935 Packard when the news came over the radio. In 1943, B.T. joined the Army and served in Europe, seeing action in the Battle of the Bulge.
B.T. was a blessed man. He described an incident where they had been fighting from hedgerow to hedgerow and he was in a ditch when a German soldier suddenly appeared and turned his weapon toward B.T., firing several rounds which went through B.T.’s field jacket and web belt but miraculously missed his body. B.T. then fired several rounds into the German soldier, ending the attack. The story was his recognition of God’s power and protection.
B.T. came home from the war and built a life and family. He was a Masonic Grand Lecturer and there probably isn’t anyone who has performed as many masonic funerals as he has. People would ask him years before his services were needed, please perform my masonic funeral.
B.T.’s passing takes one more amazing person from our world but leaves us all with the challenge to pick up part of his contribution. B.T. lived his life as an example of a walk with God, and a humble yet powerful example it was.
