Heavenly linemen created an opening on the goal line to heaven, and on Sunday, July 7, 2019, Samuel Philips, 82, of Akron, Iowa, rushed through to his eternal rest.

Funeral service will be 10:00 a.m. Friday, July 12, 2019 at Immanuel Lutheran Church, E.L.C.A. in Akron, Iowa. Reverend Eric Alm will officiate. Burial will follow in Riverside Cemetery in Akron. Visitation will be from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, July 11, 2019 at Rexwinkel-Schroeder Funeral Home in Akron. The family will be present from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. and a Prayer Service at 7:00 p.m. Visitation will resume from 9:00 a.m. until service time on Friday at the church. Arrangements are with the Rexwinkel-Schroeder Funeral Home in Akron. Expressions of sympathy can be extended to the family through www.rexwinkelfh.com .

In lieu of flowers, memorials can be made in Sam's name to the City of Akron Pool Fund.

Sam was born December 25, 1936, on the family farm in Plymouth County, Iowa, the son of William and Irene (Johnson) Philips. He was baptized at the Adaville Evangelical United Brethren Church (United Methodist). He attended country school in rural Akron and graduated from Akron High School in 1955. He earned his degree in business from Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa, where he also played football. After graduation, he worked for several years as a loan officer Sioux City before taking up his life-long vocation of farming. He was the third generation of his family to raise and feed cattle on the family farm.

Sam married Nadine Dirks on June 9, 1959, at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Akron where he was an active member, serving on the church council, teaching Sunday School and singing in the choir.

Sam took a keen interest in providing service and leadership to his community and the various organizations to which he belonged. The Akron Community School Board, Producers Livestock of Sioux City and Omaha and the National Livestock Producers Association all benefited from his steady and visionary leadership as chairman. He also served on the National Meat Board and was a delegate to the National Council of Farm Cooperatives. Sam had a passion for cattle-feeding, for the cattle and beef industry, and a love for animal agriculture. Near the end of his career in agriculture, he served as an equipment consultant in eastern Europe for Kinze Manufacturing, learning Russian to better serve his clients. Sam enriched the lives of his loved ones, friends, and business associates with his wisdom and wry wit.

Survivors include his devoted wife Nadine of Akron; their three children—John (Kerry) of Woodbury, MN, Ann (Eric) of Van Horne, IA, and Mark (LeAnne) of Akron; nine grandchildren; his sister Margaret Talbott, Akron; his brother Jason, Hawarden; his sister-in-law Wanda Philips, Hawarden; and many nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his parents, his brother-in-law Don Talbott, his brother and sister-in-law Herbert and Marlene, his brother Richard, and his sister in law Arley Philips.