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People Behind the Power – Meet Keith Phillips

Tennessee electric cooperatives power the state. Co-ops provide for three million Tennesseans -that’s 72% of the state’s landmass and 41% of the state’s population. That power wouldn’t be possible though without the employees, lineworkers and board members across the 23 cooperatives. Keith Phillips is one of the people behind that power.

Phillips is a native of Monterey and serves on the board of directors for Volunteer Energy Cooperative.

“It is a great honor and privilege that the members have trusted and elected me to serve as a director with VEC,” Phillips says.

Phillips has been married to his wife, Tammy, for 36 years and they have two daughters and two grandsons. Aside from his work within the co-op, Phillips has some unique pastimes.

His father passed away when he was just six years old, but his mother remarried two years later to Doc Goff, who soon became an important part of Phillips’ life. Goff owned D.M. Goff Funeral Home Inc. and Phillips spent a large portion of his childhood there. He enjoyed the upbringing and way of work so much, that as soon as he graduated high school, he pursued a degree in mortuary science. Since 1979, he has operated and maintained all the responsibilities of the funeral home.

“I consider it a gift to help and serve people,” Phillips says

On top of his daily funeral home duties, Phillips also reads the daily weather around 7 a.m. for the National Weather Service. He measures precipitation, daily temperature and any unusual weather events and has done so for the past 30 years.

“Monterey will many times have snow when no other counties around have any,” Phillips says about the distinctive weather he reports on.

In the past, Phillips has held many roles in the community like Volunteer Fireman, past master for the Monterey Masonic Lodge and youth director at the Monterey United Methodist Church. Now he is the superintendent of the Welch Memorial Cemetery and a member of the National Funeral Directors Association, the Upper Cumberland Funeral Directors Association and the Monterey Lions Club.

“I find it rewarding to be able to give back to the community that God has so richly blessed me with,” Phillips says.