Why San Angelo Chamber President Phil Neighbors Mattered

Sunday, he collapsed after teaching Sunday school and was rushed to San Angelo Community Medical Center with an embolism of his heart. EMS and doctors worked tirelessly on him, including surgery. He never fully regained consciousness. He was pronounced dead at 4:08 p.m. Wednesday. Phil Neighbors, the President of the San Angelo Chamber of Commerce, was 64.

Neighbors will be remembered for his impeccable character, ethic for working hard, and a natural ability to bring sometimes-disparate groups together to agree to solve mutual problems for the benefit of all.

Mike Boyd, Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer of First Financial Bank in San Angelo remembers Neighbors as a consensus builder. Boyd worked with Neighbors on the board of directors for Howard College.

“He spoke for us when we were negotiating with the city to renew the lease for Howard at the old Levi Strauss building,” Boyd said. “Neighbors was the best spokesman and convincing enough to explain why the community needed more than just a four-year college. It needed nurses, cosmetologists, and skills that come with a two-year associates degree.”

Boyd said that Neighbors had a wide view of what ingredients created a healthy economic climate for the San Angelo community and understood how to match the needs of differing groups to make it happen.

John Fuentes, owner of the popular Fuentes Café Downtown served on the Chamber Board of Directors during Neighbors’ tenure there. He recalls learning just by watching how the chamber president operated. “He ran the most efficient meetings. He was to the point and respectful of other peoples’ time. He’d definitively do his homework before the meetings,” Fuentes recalled.

Fuentes also noted that Neighbors’ gift as a consensus builder was necessary to calm the most contentious public issue last year, the proposed fracking sand depot proposed to be built on Hill St., right in the middle of town. Neighborhoods were up in arms, with citizens filling council chambers in opposition. Fuentes said that Neighbors was able to skillfully balance the concerns of the public without disregarding the business interests involved.

Below: City of San Angelo PIO Anthony Wilson interviews Phil Neighbors in Nov. 2013:

Fuentes was also impressed with the leadership Neighbors provided for the Chamber itself. “The staff there consists of top notch professionals, always prepared, always looking ahead, and they all work very hard,” he said, attributing the mindset of the Chamber staff, and the forward-direction of the Chamber’s drive, to Neighbors’ leadership.

Retired Superintendent of the San Angelo ISD, Dr. Carol Ann Bonds worked with Neighbors for 10 years. In her long career as a school administrator, she had previously worked with a variety of other chamber presidents throughout Texas. “Phil Neighbors has been the finest Chamber President I have worked with in my career,” she said late Wednesday afternoon.

“Very few people realized that he attended most events in this city which meant he worked all day, most nights, and every weekend. In addition, he volunteered every week as a mentor to students through Big Brothers/Big Sisters. He made a massive impact on Angelo State University college students through teaching a Sunday School Class for them, playing racquetball with them on Sunday afternoons, feeding them at his home every Wednesday night with his sweet wife Susan, and taking the students on international mission trips,” Bonds said.

San Angelo Attorney Rick DeHoyos also serves on the Chamber Board of Directors.

“He has been a mentor to my nephew who is 12 years old. I saw him on several occasions attend (my nephew's) school sporting events. They have a really close relationship. When I saw that he actually took time to spend with a student who is not in his family, I knew he was special. How a man, an executive director in this community, who is a really busy person take time to spend with a child who is not related to him is amazing to me. I saw him as a totally different person after that,” DeHoyos said.

“He was a man of action, and one of the most humble men I have ever met. You never got the sense that he was in a high position. He was always a servant,” he said. DeHoyos also lauded the chamber staff under Neighbors’ leadership.

Michael Looney was a young and energetic economic development professional from Austin who Neighbors recruited to move to San Angelo to head the Chamber’s economic development department less than two years ago.

Neighbors and Looney collaborated to lift the economic development efforts of the city as a whole, to include holistically merging City of San Angelo and Chamber ED efforts together to work as a streamlined team.

“He always believed in me, and trusted me as a newcomer,” Looney said.  “He allowed me to run with enthusiasm and ideas that haven’t been tried before, and I think the results have been good.”

Neighbors had a special gift that motivated talented people working with him to perform.

“He was the kind of leader who you didn’t want to disappoint. You felt an open-hearted kind of kinship with him, and you wanted to do well, to excel and take it a step further,” Looney explained.

Past Chairman of the Chamber Board Jim Hughes admired Neighbors’ energy. “He did more in his 64 years than most people could accomplish in 100,” he said.

Both Hughes and Bonds worked most recently together with Neighbors on Goodfellow AFB projects. “We partnered the writing of the application for the Altus Trophy and were determined to make our city’s support for our base outshine all other cities with installations,” Bonds said.

Boyd noted that Neighbors was thinking very far ahead on how to boost Goodfellow AFB’s profile in the U.S. Air Force. The partnership with Angelo State University to bring in the Security Studies program was all Phil, Hughes said. ASU offers a degree curriculum aligned with Goodfellow AFB’s mission, making San Angelo more valuable to the Air Force as a location for those missions.

Bonds summed it up. “He inspired me daily with his contentment, integrity, wisdom, and work ethic. I am a far better person for working with Phil Neighbors almost 10 years,” she said.

Neighbors was a 1974 graduate of Angelo State University with a B.A. in Political Science and Government. He began his career as the Director of Development for the West Texas Chamber of Commerce based in Abilene from 1976 until 1986. He served as vice president of the Kerrville Chamber of Commerce from 1986 until 1993, and then took the helm as the President of the San Marcos Chamber from 1993 until he arrived in San Angelo in 2006.

“Phil was such a giant. He knew everyone, not only in San Angelo but also all across the state. He could have gotten a higher-paying job in a larger city. But he loved San Angelo and its people. He chose to live here and help build this community, and for that San Angelo is a much better place,” Hughes said.

Neighbors leaves behind his wife Susan, and their children, Janet Abernathy and Jeff Neighbors.

“Today my father, who led me to Christ, is playing racket ball with Him in heaven,” son Jeff Neighbors said in a statement on Facebook.

His funeral will be Saturday in San Angelo, and plans will be released Thursday about the exact place and time. UPDATE: The funeral arrangements and memorial schedule is here.

Picture at top: Phil Neighbors, President of the San Angelo Chamber of Commerce, died on Feb. 3, 2016. (City of San Angelo Public Information)