Philip David Ropp's Obituary
Philip David Ropp, 69, of Clearwater, Florida passed away on June 7, 2023. He was predeceased four months earlier by his wife and best friend of 44 years, Jean C. Ropp, a life- and soul-shattering event from which he could not recover.
Born on November 14, 1953 to Verda and Irvin Ropp of Alma, Michigan, Phil was the oldest of three children. He graduated from Alma High School in 1971 and from Alma College in 1977 with a bachelor’s degree in Religion. In 1978, Phil met Jean while on a college trip to Chicago. They were married a year later on May 20, 1979 in a flowered field in Winn, Michigan. In 1980, Phil and Jean started their ever-growing family of seven beautiful daughters, all of whom he leaves behind: Rebekah (Harold) Montague, Rachel Ropp, Sarah Ropp, Abigail Ropp, Hannah (John) Conkle, Elizabeth Ropp, and Martha Ropp. He is also survived by his grandson, Zef, and his adoring sisters and brother-in-law, Robin Miller and Jan and Jack Jackson, as well as his lifelong friends, Dave Hoxie and Rex Fetzner.
After spending their early years in central Michigan, Phil and Jean moved to Ft. Myers, Florida where Phil worked in the hotel management industry for several years before moving the family back to Michigan. There they settled into a 150-year-old farmhouse in Leelanau County, a beautiful peninsula on Lake Michigan. Together, and later with the help of their kids, they built Bass Lake Cottages, a vacation rental business, from the ground up over the course of 15 years. In 2003, Phil and Jean sold the business and the farmhouse and bought a boutique hotel in Sebring, Florida, which was destroyed a year later by a devastating hurricane. Rather than flee, Jean and Phil staged a makeshift soup kitchen out of the hotel restaurant and kept the community fed and sheltered through a month-long power outage. They then returned up north to Alma, Michigan where they spent 10 years before migrating back to Florida in 2015 to make their last home together in Clearwater.
Phil was a complex man: his intellect keen, his thinking deep, his opinions strong, his faith unwavering. His sense of humor gravitated toward “the ridiculous,” his lifestyle toward the simple, and his giving heart toward the downtrodden and those whose souls and spirits were most in need. While juggling the enormous demands of both family and business, Phil still made time to pursue his passion for ministerial work, and he spent many satisfying years ministering to the incarcerated in central Michigan prisons.
Phil lived in the nostalgic days of his childhood, and throughout his life he found great joy and fun in drive-in theaters, old movies and TV shows, vintage radios and cars, the music of the Beatles, and the stories and memories of his parents and grandparents. He loved picnics with Jean at Honeymoon Island, their Monday hamburger-and-TV nights at home, and holidays with his family with his famous deviled eggs as the centerpiece. Mostly, he loved beyond measure his soulmate Jean; may they now be together again in peace.
No immediate services for Phil are planned. Family members ask that friends honor the memories of both Phil and Jean by paying love forward through a random act of kindness for someone in need. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in their name to Light of Christ Catholic Church: http://locchurch.org, or in Phil’s memory to any prison ministries program nationwide.
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