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When Olly and Tom Sherman decided to form the 100
Club, they sent invitations to everyone who had purchased senior season
passes at Sunlight. Anna and Phil Wheelock were among the first to
respond. As charter members they have remained active and loyal through
the years. Anna received her 1000 mile hiking pin a few years ago and
still walks two to four miles every day in Battlement Mesa, where they
now reside.
Their story begins in Illinois. Phil joined the service right out of
high school in Evanston, becoming a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne
Division. He led a machine gun section into combat during the Battle of
the Bulge after a senior officer was killed. That battle claimed 50,000
men, equal to the number killed in seven years in the Vietnam War. To
complete necessary points for discharge, his third year in the service
was spent as a journalistic photographer. On the G.I. Bill he attended
the University of Illinois and the University of Alaska, until bleeding
stomach ulcers forced him to give up his studies and return to Illinois.
With his brother Tim, he farmed his father’s land in McHenry, fifty
miles from Chicago. Drinking fresh goats’ milk cured the ulcers.
In order to support his wife and family, he began working full-time at
Baxter and Woodman, in addition to part-time farming. He became a
widower with three young children after just ten years of marriage.
Brother Tim was working with Anna and insisted that she meet Phil. Anna
had been born Anna Demitroula Rigopoulos to a Greek father and American
mother, one of six children. To make a long story short, they married
and have lived together over forty years. They adopted each other’s
children, adding Anna’s five year old daughter to Phil’s three children.
Anna had spent her life in Chicago and never dreamed she’d become a
farmer’s wife. She adapted well, even learning how to pull sheep at
birthing with the best of them.
Anna took up skiing after meeting Phil. She became the ski bum of the
family, dashing off to a little hill in Wisconsin after the kids were
picked up by the school bus and getting home just in time to meet them
on their return. Outdoor activities were a big part of their life
together—skiing, hiking, biking, archery, white water canoeing, fishing,
and camping. Phil claims the unique achievement of catching a groundhog
while casting for fish.
Phil was the founder of the Northern Illinois Bowmen’s Club. He set up a
competition field target course on their property, one of the first in
the nation. As an innovative dairy farmer he designed the first open
housing milking parlor in the area. It was much more efficient than the
barn stalls.
Anna was instrumental in forming the hospice in McHenry County. As a
political activist, she spoke at a City Council meeting advocating a
smoking ban in grocery stores. Signs were posted the very next day. And
when she and Phil were unhappy with some of the mayor’s governing
tactics, they launched a successful door-to-door campaign to unseat him.
This mayor was, coincidentally, Phil’s barber. When he went in for his
next haircut, the ousted mayor asked him to leave, though not until
after he had nicely trimmed half of Phil’s head.
Anna and Phil have enjoyed a full and happy life. And they have more
stories. Phil is the author of the book Borrowed Time Stories, which is
available in the local library—unless this announcement causes a rush to
check it out. |
