MORE: Despite dire diagnosis, Hamilton man keeps smiling
After Poppel was diagnosed, his family threw him a celebration in his honor at Butler County Lumber, where he worked for 27 years. Hamilton firefighters drove a fire truck to the party, and Poppel and his five siblings posed for pictures.
“He’s a super guy, a big friend,” one of his brothers, Clifford Poppel, 58, said at the party. Clifford moved in with Phil 15 years ago after their mother died.
“He’s my sidekick,” Clifford said.
When Phil was 5 years old, as the family was leaving church, he had a massive convulsion that stopped oxygen from reaching his brain. He never was the same, his family said. He rode his bike or walked the short distance from his home on Park Avenue to Butler County Lumber.
He attended Hamilton City Schools and graduated from Lakota High School in 1983. Since 1989, he worked at Butler County Lumber, a third-generation family business that was founded in 1912. When he started in the Mental Retardation Developmental Disabilities work program, he had certain limitations at the lumber yard.
There was colored tape on the concrete and he wasn’t allowed to cross the line because of the dangerous equipment. Eventually, his responsibilities expanded and he became just one of the guys.
“Family,” is how Butler County Lumber Co. President Tom Sanders described Poppel.
“He’s been amazing to us,” he said. “He has touched a lot of lives. Everyone knows Phil.”
He was a member and usher at St. Ann Catholic Church, Knights of Columbus Council 968, and AMVETS Post 1983.
Funeral service will be at 10 a.m. Friday at St. Ann Catholic Church, 3028 Pleasant Ave., with Father Larry Tharp and Bishop Joe Binzer officiating. Burial will follow at Greenwood Cemetery.
Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Brown Dawson Flick Funeral Home, 1350 Millville Ave., with a Knights of Columbus service beginning at 7:30 p.m.
Memorial contributions may be made to St. Ann Catholic Church Roots and Wings Tuition Assistance or Animal Friends Humane Society.
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