Phillip Duane Shields

Phillip Duane Shields – 7/5/43 – 1/7/25 81, passed away following two cardiac events at St Vincent’s Emergency Department. His family wants to recognize the compassionate and kind ER provider who ensured that he was in no pain and was able to pass with dignity and peace with his daughter and son-in-law by his side. Phil graduated from Madison Heights High School in 1962 following the unexpected death of his father instead of accepting a full-ride scholarship to the University of Tennessee for basketball, he decided to join the Marine Corps and go to Vietnam. He felt compelled to join and fight as he had already lost several of his buddies to the war. He was honorably discharged on January 1, 1967. He married the love of his life, Linda (Hudson) on March 4, 1968. They met as children but didn’t know that years later they would meet again. He said many times that on the night they met, “I knew right away that I was going to marry her” and less than three months later he did just that. They welcomed two children, Anthony Duane Shields (preceded in death in 2016) and Dawné Lynn McCarty (Shields). They spent their lives laughing and enjoying each other, their children, grandchildren, and many beloved pets. He worked for the Anderson Fire Department when he came home from Vietnam then moved from that to many other jobs (to name a few: UPS, Long Haul Trucker, Delco Remy, Construction, Bank Robber, Grave Digger, Santa Claus, Opera Singer (soprano of course), Private Detective and the first ever Ambidextrous Poker Player, however his three true loves in his career span were his Privately owned Security Company, a highly recognized leader in several fitness companies and for the largest part of his life he was a Timber Exporter with several different timber companies. His love of trees (mostly black walnut) lead to many excursions with his grandchildren “looking for trees.” Those who knew him will remember what a total character he was in all avenues of life. He was funny even hilarious doing the most random things that would shock us and make us laugh so hard we cried. During his life he would put his mail in random mailboxes, clean off headstones with leather-flavored moonshine, drove race cars on the highway, he stopped at all green lights and was on a first-name basis at any McDonalds in a 50-mile radius. He was a character and all of those things he would have done given his love of life, laughter, and making those around him happy. He was innovative, always having an invention in his head that he thought would be the “next big thing” and ironically enough several of his ideas were eventually created by someone else many years later. He has notebooks of scribbles, prototypes, and the like. He was also an amazing artist who made astounding abstract oil paintings. Lastly, his kindness was felt by those who both knew him well or had only met him once. He would give you the shirt off his back, regardless if you knew him or not. One story we want to share that speaks volumes about him: in 1992 he saw a dump truck coming up very fast behind him (he was in the turn lane). He looked at the car that was going to get hit and saw several children playing in the back seat so he quickly pulled his big old caddy in behind their car and was rear-ended by the dump truck that was going 55 mph. He sustained multiple injuries but always said “I would do it again in a heartbeat, there were little ones in that car, they were just at the beginning of their lives…” He was preceded in death by his parents, Clinton and Maxine (Waterman) Shields; a brother, Larry Shields; niece, Jennifer Shields; and his son and best friend, Tony Shields. He is survived by his loving wife, Linda (Hudson) Shields; daughter, Dawné (Shields) McCarty and husband Scott; brother-in-law, Steve Hudson (Moore, OK); daughter-in-law, Andrea Shields-Banter; grandchildren, Chelsie Criag, Jacob McCarty and wife Taresa, Chloe Shields, Jocelyn Whitworth and boyfriend Joe Putnam Jr, Brady Shields and Connor McCarty; and great-grandchild, Jaxson Quinn; and many other nieces and nephews. He is also survived by several grandchildren/great grandchildren that were not blood but considered part of his family – you all know who you are. Celebration of Life will be January 26th from 2pm-5pm at the VFC (VFW) 3607 East Tenth Street, Anderson, IN 46012. In lieu of flowers, his family would like donations to either St Jude Children’s Hospital or ASPCA (animal protection). www.loosecares.com

Phillip Duane Shields

July 5, 1943 - January 7, 2025