Phillip Hellman Phil Hellman, 87, of Sterling, died Jan. 19, 2011, in Sterling. Visitation will be from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 23, at Chaney-Reager Funeral Home. Funeral services will be at 10:30 a.m. Monday, Jan. 24, at Christ United Methodist Church with the Rev. Ed Bigler. Interment will be at Riverside Cemetery, with graveside rites by the Masonic Lodge No. 54 AF & AM.

Phil was the born March 19, 1923, to Otis and Lyda Hellman of Greenwood County, Kan. He graduated from Eureka Public High School and went on to attend classes at Heims University in Lawrence, Kan.

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in the Naval Air Service, at which time he served stateside for more than four years. He was honorably discharged on April 9, 1946.

Phil returned home to take a job at the Boeing plant in Wichita, Kan., and work the family farm. Later on, he traveled to Center to farm potatoes with his cousin, Bill Koffman.

On Dec. 2, 1952, he married Berniece Riley in Taos, N.M. In the spring of 1954, they moved four miles south of Dailey, where they successfully operated for 43 years what has become known as the Bar K Ranch (Woodland Company), per absentee land owners located in Lincoln, Neb. When the property was sold in 1999, they retired from activity and moved to Sterling.

He was a longtime member of the Masonic order, United Methodist Church and American Legion. A devoted father and step-father, he will surely be missed.

Phil is survived by his wife, Berniece of Sterling; sons, Phillip Hellman and wife Judy of Sterling, Joe Waycoff of Eufaula, Ala.; daughters, Sharon Christine Reiman of Cheyenne, Wyo., Patricia Jones and husband Richard of Lincoln, Calif., and Sue Byslma and husband Mike of Wiggins; and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.