After well-known area resident Phillip Townsend died from injuries sustained in a July 27, 2005, motorcycle accident on Route 113, about 700 people attended his memorial services, his wife Deborah Townsend said.
Special to the Coastal Point • SUBMITTED:
Phillip Townsend (second from right) surrounded by some of his loved ones — from left, his son, Stuart; wife, Deborah; mother, Mabel Bender; daughter, Nadine. In the front is his granddaughter, Alleigh.
She now hopes that a fundraiser set up to raise money for a merit scholarship in Phillip Townsend’s name receives similar support from the community. A portion of the proceeds from the April 29 event will benefit a local student studying criminal justice in college.
“I thought that a scholarship would honor and carry on his name,” said Deborah Townsend, whose late husband worked at the Delaware Department of Corrections for 30 years. Phillip Townsend was the third-in-command and the security superintendent at the Sussex Correctional Institute at the time of his death.
The first annual fundraiser to benefit the Maj. Phillip J. Townsend scholarship will be held from 7 p.m. to midnight on April 29 at the Millville Fire Hall on Atlantic Avenue. Tickets cost $25 at the event or $20 in advance. (Call Deborah Townsend at 539-5080, Nadine Townsend at (302) 245-2664 or Sue Dick at 539-5733 to order tickets in advance.)
Although the details were not yet worked out at Coastal Point press time, there will be live music and food, including pulled pork, string beans and coleslaw at the event. Beer and soda will also be served at the April 29 fundraiser.
Deborah Townsend said that all of the food for the event was donated by local restaurants. Local organizations and businesses have also donated items for auctions on the night of the event, the proceeds from which will benefit the scholarship fund. Deborah Townsend said that she had only expected proceeds from the fundraiser to reach about $2,000 but expects much more to be raised now, because of the amount of interest she has already received from the community.
“Everybody I talk to about it is donating like crazy,” Deborah Townsend said. “It’s very possible that 500 people might show up.”
Phillip Townsend — 56, and a firearms enthusiast who was also a veteran on his motorcycle — was pronounced dead at the scene of the July 27 accident. About 4 p.m. on that Wednesday, Phillip Townsend was traveling southbound on Route 113 on his 2001 Honda Helix, approaching Sheep Pen Road. A man in a Chevrolet pickup attempting to cross Route 113 apparently didn’t see Townsend and the front of the truck collided with the left side of the motorcycle. Townsend was ejected from his motorcycle and landed in a nearby field, where he was later pronounced dead.
At the time of his death, he was a member of the Delaware National Guard, a Mason at the Delaware Masonic Lodge in Dagsboro and an award-winning member of the Department of Corrections’ pistol team.
Phillip Townsend was a father to six, a grandfather to three, a brother, a son and a husband at the time of the accident.
“Sometimes when a family grieves a death, you look at your own mortality,” Deborah Townsend said. “If you died, what do you stand for? I just think it’s important to carry on his name.”