Roland V. Phillips (Bud), 92, of Columbus, born Dec. 10, 1919, died in Sarasota, Fla. on Jan. 23, 2012. He was cared for by his three girls, Anne Phillips, Jean Phillips and Mary Avola. He was the husband of the late Dorothy Phillips. They were married in 1945 in Pensacola, Fla. while on active duty. He grew up in Baldwin, Long Island, N.Y. and as a boy loved aeronautics. Graduating from Baldwin High School in 1937, he received a B.S. in aero engineering from Tri-State College, Angola, Indiana, 1941.
Bud worked his entire career at Grumman, which he joined in 1942. He worked on FGF before enlisting in the Navy. He was released to inactive duty in July 1946 and returned to Grumman to complete a total of 38 years in structural design of the F9F, F11F, AGA, LM and space shuttle wing. He transferred to field service and spent three years in Iran on the F-14 and one year in Israel on the hydrofoil gun boat. Bud worked on the A-4 Malaysian Program in Singapore as design engineer on the S2-T turboprop, spent time in Taiwan working repairs on an S2 aircraft.
Bud and Dorothy loved their travels and the work. Dorothy wrote many letters to their friends and family, telling great travel stories.
During Bud’s career, he was assigned to the space project in January 1963 shortly after Grumman was awarded the contract. His position on the Apollo program was lead engineer, vehicle design, LunarExcurision Module (LM), LM ascent stage.  He supervised the design of the LM ascent stage, the construction of LM mock-ups and test vehicles.
He was a driver for the Columbus “Meals on Wheels” program and volunteered in the food pantry, packing backpacks for the children. He and Dorothy were members of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church.
Bud was a very active individual even into his 90s. He loved the water and sailing, loved to produce some sort of a product and lived life to its fullest. He will be greatly missed.
He is survived by his five children, Mary Avola, Jean Phillips, Anne Phillips, Tom Phillips and Richard Phillips; six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
We would like to thank the staff at the Hospice of the Carolina Foothills for the help they gave to our family.