Philip Holliman Obituary

PHILIP DANIEL HOLLIMAN
November 15, 1931 ~ November 11, 2017

Philip D. Holliman passed away Saturday, November 11, 2017, just four days from his 86th birthday. He was born in Portland, Oregon on November 15, 1931 to Philip Howard and Elizabeth (Harth) Holliman. His father was African American, and his mother was an immigrant from Germany. He was proud of his "bi-racial" identity. He sadly lost his mother to Tuberculosis when he was five.
In his childhood years Phil was known to his family as "Sonny," and later by his football teammates as "Snake-Hips Holliman," because of his speed and agility on the football field and track. He attended Holy Rosary Catholic School and Church and Benson Poly Tech. Phil then went on to the University of Portland. He worked parking cars, digging ditches and cleaning St. Mary's Academy to work his way through the university where he graduated Maxima Cum Laude in 1956. He received an academic scholarship to the University of Wisconsin-Madison and earned his Master of Social Work in 1958. It was at U of W-Madison where he met Norma Toomes from Keokuk, Iowa who was studying Occupational Therapy.
After their graduation and marriage in Madison, Phil and Norma moved to Portland. Phil was hired as a counselor at the Multnomah County Donald E Long Home for juvenile offenders and Norma worked as a Registered Occupational Therapist. They bought they first home on NE 19th Avenue in 1961. Phil was promoted to case work supervisor.
Phil and Norma had three daughters who he often entertained with stories, original poetry and the coolest toys at Christmas. Phil was always the Best Dad in the neighborhood, building playhouses and tree houses for his daughters and restoring bicycles and staging track competitions for the neighborhood kids. He also became a small, yet masterful investor in real estate and financial accounts. The family moved to Vancouver, WA in 1972. Phil and Norma eventually paid tuition for all three daughters to attend and graduate from the University of Portland. He was determined to always put his family first and give his daughters what he never had growing up.
Phil was a collector at heart. When he retired from the County in 1990 he was able to dedicate more time researching and adding to his various collections. By this time, he had acquired the name "Brown Bear" from his youngest daughter and would sometimes laugh so hard at movies that he would fall backwards in his recliner. He lived a full and productive life as a family man who wanted little to do with ceremony and frivolity. He survived the removal of a kidney due to cancer in 1982.
Phil was preceded in death by his parents and his sister, Elizabeth Holliman. He is survived by Norma; daughters, Leann (Greg) Johnson, Julie Holliman and Jenna (Brett Nelson) Holliman; and grandchildren, Myia and Savanna Johnson and Malina Nelson.
The girls want to give a special love-filled thank you to their mother, Norma, who selflessly tended to Phil's medical needs so that he could live his last years and days at the place he loved best: his home.
The family held a private service on November 18, 2017 at Evergreen Memorial Gardens in Vancouver.
Please sign Philip's Guest Book at www.columbian.com/obits.