Final Salute

ROTTERDAM – Carl William Phelps, 90, died on Sunday, December 28, after a short illness.
Carl proudly served in the Navy Reserves as a Seabee, firefighter, and electrician. He then worked for the New York Telephone Company starting as a lineman and retiring in 1991 as the Staff Supervisor of the Buildings Technical Training Center in Newark, NY. After years of attending night classes, he graduated from St. John Fisher’s College in 1984 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology. Carl was a member of the National Society of the Descendants of The Green Mountain Boys by nature of descent from a militia member who helped found the state of Vermont and aided in the cause of American Independence in the Revolutionary War.
Carl was dedicated to service to the church and through his decades-long involvement with the Lions Club. Active in his local church by teaching Sunday School, lay preaching, and active coffee-hour participation, he also served on the Board of Trustees of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, specializing in matters pertaining to building construction and maintenance. Carl received the Melvin Jones Fellowship Award for Exemplary Service from the Lions Clubs International and the Robert J. Uplinger Distinguished Award for fund raising from the Victor, NY Lions Club. He was “Pappa Phelps” to the high school marching band students as an active Band Booster parent. Carl was a docent at the Strong Museum in Rochester, NY and the Museum of Innovation and Science in Schenectady, N.Y., primarily teaching children about electricity and physics.
Carl was an avid traveler and adventurer. He drove the family RV to more than 40 states including Alaska. He loved to camp, backpack, and canoe in the Adirondack mountains in all seasons, reveling in telling tales of sleeping outside in sub zero temperatures and serving in the forest fire brigades as a teenager. It was in the Adirondacks that Carl developed his love of loons of which you were reminded in his home every hour by the warble of his beloved loon clock as you were surrounded by “loon-y” knick-knacks.
Carl tried many things along the way: SCUBA diving with all three of his children, crafting stained glass windows for his church, building an HO scale model Alaskan Railroad in the basement, making homemade horseradish, sauerkraut, and dill pickles, and planting crocus bulbs in a smiley face in the front lawn to name a few. Nicknamed, “Crash,” he was banned from Segways and ladders in his later years because of his propensity to fall. He was also nicknamed, “Mr. Smooth,” for always hitting the greens in the Ribs and Beer golf league. Carl was always the first one out of the door to go someplace and in his last year, he pioneered a new diet of eating mostly peanut butter cups.
He is survived by son, Chad (Joan), of Winter Park, Fla.; daughters, Jacqueline (James) Holmes, of Holliston, Mass., and the Rev. Dr. Jennifer Phelps (Gregory Pershyn), of Stroudsburg, Pa.; grandchildren, Lindsey Phelps, Courtney Phelps, Morgan Holmes, Taryn Holmes, Reese Holmes, Erik Ollikainen and Eva Ollikainen; his great-grandson, David Ollikainen; his sister, Virginia (Phelps) Willey and his brother, William Phelps.
He was preceded in death by his loving wife of 59 years, Carol (Hyserman); parents, William and Alice (Welch) Phelps; and sister, Judy (Phelps) Murdie.
The funeral service will be held Friday, January 9, 2026 at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 510 Albany-Shaker Road, Loudonville: Visitation, 10 to 11 a.m. Funeral, 11 a.m. Luncheon to follow at the church. Interment will be at a later date.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to The Adirondack Center for Loon Conservation www.adkloon.org, 75 Main St., Saranac Lake, N.Y. 12983.
Condolence book at bowenandparkerbros.com