Phalice A Vanderpol
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August 9, 1944 - July 21, 2025 |
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Phalice was born on August 9, 1944, in Richland, Washington, during World War II, where her father unknowingly worked to support the development of the atomic bomb. After her parents divorced, her mother remarried, built a house on the South Hill in Spokane, WA where Phalice would spend her remaining childhood years.
She worked hard to be able to go to college, first at WSU in Pullman, WA where she met and married her husband then later at the University of Minnesota where she completed her Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics with a minor in Spanish. Phalice taught in public schools before having her first child. She adopted four children and fostered two more. In the late 1970s, she and her family spent three years in Latin America—first studying Spanish in Costa Rica, then serving as missionaries in Colombia with the Latin American Mission.
Upon returning to the U.S. in 1980, Phalice resumed her passion for education, teaching junior & senior high math & Spanish at Bellevue Christian School (BCS). Later serving as the elementary School Counselor. In the mid-1980s, she reconnected with her birth father and was able to develop a meaningful relationship with him and his wife.
Never one to stop learning, Phalice earned a Master’s degree in Counseling from Bastyr University in the 1990s and returned to BCS as elementary school counselor. Phalice retired at 62 to pursue her lifelong passion for international mission work. She helped set up a school in South Sudan with SIM (Serving in Mission) working there for nearly three years, followed by two years at a school in Thailand, Grace International. Eventually, health concerns brought her back home to Washington State.
Phalice is survived by four children, eight grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren; a brother, a half-sister, two sisters-in-law, a step-mother and a wide circle of friends including many at Aegis of Kirkland where she spent her last years. She was predeceased by her parents, her stepfather, a daughter, 2 grandchildren, a brother and a sister. Her legacy of faith, compassion, and education lives on in the many lives she touched. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Phalice’s memory to:
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