“I especially enjoyed walking in the woods and being outside. I grew up on Tonawanda Creek, so I enjoyed fishing and swimming. My hobby was making model airplanes with a rubber band propeller,” he said. “I worked on the farm because that’s what farm kids did.”

Earl was an appraiser for the Federal Land Bank, which Phelps’ father in charge of the farm. They were potato farmers, but also planted two acres of strawberries, which were irrigated from Tonawanda Creek. The family used horses for farming throughout the 1940s and had four Guernseys (dairy cattle) for their own use. Nine hundred feeder lambs were brought from Texas and Montana each year to sell for Passover. The lambs were transported in three train cars.

Several childhood stories surfaced from the pastor’s country upbringing.

“Dad told me about a time when he and a cousin were playing around the farm and they noticed the eggs ready to be picked up for market and they decided to throw one egg against the barn. Which they did,” says Phelps’ daughter, Lora Keiper. “Realizing they would be in trouble, with childhood wisdom, they proceeded to throw the rest of the eggs. They definitely got in trouble for that one.”

Pictured is a photo of Phelps taken in 1929. Submitted photo

As a young man he trapped small animals for extra cash. On one occasion he accidentally caught a skunk, which sprayed him as he was releasing it from the trap. His mother was especially displeased as he had been dressed in his best Sunday clothes.

During his first five years in school, his mother or a neighbor drove the children to a local district school, leaving them to walk home. After the schools centralized, they were transported by bus to and from Corfu-East Pembroke Central School, from which he graduated in 1946. The school’s name was later changed to Pembroke Central School.

He was a member of Future Farmers of America during high school. After graduation, he received an Associates Degree in General Agriculture at Morrisville Ag and Tech. It was during his last semester that he took a course called “Soils” where the professor talked about soil conservation, “which was fairly new in 1947.”

After graduation, he found a job as a conservation aide, which he worked at for a little over a year, until he was drafted in 1950 during the Korean War. His request to be a medic was granted and he was trained to be an operating room technician at Fort Benning, Georgia.

He was married to Alice Peck April 2, 1951, six weeks before he was sent to Germany.

Ninety-one year old David Phelps is currently writing and illustrating a children’s book. Submitted photo

“We had six weeks at Fort Benning, which was a nice honeymoon before one and a half year’s separation.”

When he arrived in Germany he was assigned to a dispensary “from time to time” and he volunteered to be trained as a radio operator.

“He became his company’s sharpshooter,” said Alice. “He said his skill was gained by shooting all the rats in the barns on the family farm. Nowadays he says he could not shoot the broad side of a barn.”

After he served his time in the Army, he accepted the call to ministry and was a student at Houghton College, where Alice studied Christian Education. He pastored East Otto Methodist Church while he was a student and stayed in the college dorm during the week, joining his wife at the parsonage on the weekend. He then took basic seminary courses at Alfred University and during his last year was moved to Eldred, Pa., from where he commuted to school. He remained there for three years after graduating from seminary. In 1962, when the Methodist Church realigned its borders, Phelps asked to be moved back to his home state. After moving back to New York state, he was appointed to Walworth for three years. He then spent four years in Livonia. It was during this time that he took a year-long sabbatical and worked for a plumbing and heating contractor.

“The superintendent said the bishop wanted me back in ministry,” said Phelps. He served at Rochester’s Grace United Methodist Church for two years and then at Oakfield UMC for 11 years.

“The youth at Oakfield called Alice Mrs. Hugs,” he said. “She was a warm, friendly person.”

He started a part-time job at the Veteran’s Administration Medical Center as a chaplain, working on Saturdays, while he was at Oakfield. From there, he was sent to Hilton, N.Y. for three years to rebuild a church that had burned after some kids went in after hours and left burning candles under the choir robes. All the while he continued his Saturday chaplain services for the Veterans Administration.

In 1984, he applied for a full-time position at the VA hospital in Batavia and left the church. When he was ready for retirement, he learned that the pension and insurance he had paid into while serving the UMC, would not be available unless he retired from the church. Therefore, he retired from the hospital and went back to the UMC, pastoring at the Alabama and Elba churches for two years before he retired at 65 years of age.

After he retired, he added a room onto the back of a house he had purchased in Oakfield while he worked for the VA, doing as much of the work as possible. During his retirement, he was president for many years of a cooperative ministry of the churches in Batavia which sponsored ministry at the county jail.

Fond family memories were made during the many camping trips on which the Phelps took their children over the years.

“Our family enjoyed camping and when we outgrew our tent, dad built us a tent trailer out of plywood. It gave us many years of family fun and enjoyment,” Lora reminisced. “He also built our family a wooden rowboat, but his pride and joy was building a kayak out of canvas and poplar wood. That kayak went with us on every camping trip and on other family vacations. After 49 years the kayak is still around. A family friend now has proud ownership of it.”

Phelps, now 91, proves the line “you’re never too old to learn” to be true. He has repeatedly learned new skills and techniques throughout his life and continues to do so to this day.

A few years after retirement, Alice saw a promotion for a watercolors class and thought her husband would be interested. He had been dabbling with oil painting for quite a while, having taken a class several years before and had studied different mediums during the three years he attended adult education classes at BOCES in Batavia. He is currently traveling to Mayville in the summer months to take watercolor lessons once again.

“Dad is an artist to his core,” said Lora. “Over the years he has used oils, acrylic and watercolor paints to make his beautiful creations. His paintings hang in his children’s and grandchildren’s homes.”

“As part of his ministry each Sunday he would give a children’s story and I couldn’t wait to see what he would do each week,” she continued. “He’d have a big piece of paper and he would draw a line here and then a line there and it would make you guess what the picture would be when it was completed. That always fascinated me.”

Each of his children has several braided wool rugs made by their father’s hands.

“What I’m excited about now is writing a children’s book and illustrating it,” said the nonagenarian. “When I came here Mrs. Karbacka had the Suzuki kids play in the dining room. She offered anyone who would like to play an instrument (the opportunity).”

He started practicing one of the available violins for a month, until a small cello was found in a closet. He purchased his own full-size cello when it was decided the half-cello was too small.

“He gets great joy from being creative, using his mind and hands to make things,” Lora said.

The Phelps have three children. John lives in Texas, Timothy in Falconer and Lora in Attica, N.Y. They have five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. David lost Alice on Dec. 8, 2015, after nearly 65 years of marriage. He had been her caregiver for several years before they made the decision to move to Hultquist Place, an assisted living facility in Jamestown, in 2013.

“I personally think he is an amazing man, but I probably would be considered biased,” Lora said.