PHILIP S. KEMP
March 24, 1929-May 10, 2017
Philip Sharples Kemp, 88, passed away Wednesday, May 10, 2017, at Kitty Askins Hospice Center.
Born in Easton, Md., he was the son of the late William Powell Kemp and Elizabeth Atherholt Kemp.
The family moved to Goldsboro in 1931 to start Kemp Specialty Furniture Co.
Phil graduated from George School in Pennsylvania, where he excelled at wrestling. Continuing on to the University of North Carolina, he won the Southern Conference Championship.
Phil entered the United States Air Force, and graduated flight school in Columbus, Miss., class of 1952.
He was stationed in Naha, Okinawa, with his wife, Ruth, where he flew the F-86 Sabre fighter jet in training missions at the end of the Korean conflict.
Phil was an adventurer, enjoying adventure in the air, on the land, on the sea and under the sea.
He was a creative engineer and entrepreneurial horticulturist, and made farming his career.
Phil and Ruth moved their young family to a farm in the country, where he innovated many useful inventions for his pork, row crop and dehydrated coastal Bermuda farming business. Grapes and persimmon trees later became his passion.
Phil Kemp was a member of the Third Haven Friends Meeting of the Society of Friends (Quakers) in Easton, Md.
Phil loved his family, extended family and friends.
He is survived by his greatest love, his wife of 64 years, Ruth Norwood Kemp; his daughters, Molly Larsen of Baker City, Ore., and Jeannie Frash and husband, Martin Frash, of Newburyport, Mass.; and sons, Thomas "Hart" Kemp of Dudley, N.C., and partner, Kristina Jones of LaGrange, N.C., and Philip "Skip" Kemp Jr. and wife, Grace Kemp, of Morehead City, N.C.
Phil loved his 10 grandchildren and their spouses and three great-grandchildren.
Phil was predeceased by his parents and brothers, William P. Kemp Jr. and Robert L. Kemp.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Kitty Askins Hospice Center, 2402 Wayne Memorial Drive, Goldsboro, N.C., 27534; Trustees of Third Haven Meeting, 405 S. Washington St., Easton, Md., 21601; or the charity of one's choice.
No service is planned.
The family will receive friends at the residence Saturday, May 20, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Online condolences and Phil Kemp memories are appreciated, and made available through Shumate-Faulk Funeral Home, Goldsboro, N.C., http://www.shumate-faulk.com/.
Phil's philosophy was articulated in many works of Rudyard Kipling, and summarized in the concluding verse of "High Flight" by John Gillespie Magee Jr.
"Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
"I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
"Where never lark, or ever eagle flew --
"And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
"The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
"Put out my hand, and touched the face of God."
(Pd)
Published in Obituaries on May 14, 2017 11:18 AM