Jim Phipps, a nationally recognized physical education teacher and tennis coach, who was described by friends and colleagues as caring, warm, entertaining and “bigger than life,” died Sunday after experiencing a cardiac event, according to family members.
The 62-year-old spent 28 years at Lancaster Country Day School and was inducted into the Black Tennis Hall of Fame in 2024. He also received a Novo Nordisk Donnelly Scholarship coach award during the 2025 U.S. Open tennis tournament.
Phipps, who joined the national kidney transplant list in December, had end-stage renal failure and received dialysis three times a week. A December LNP | LancasterOnline article featured Phipps and another local resident as they searched for living kidney donors. (You can read that story at lanc.news/OrganDonationAwareness.)
He said at the time that he also was diabetic, had high blood pressure and a family history of kidney disease.
Jody McGillan of Ephrata, the other person mentioned in the December feature, received a living donor transplant May 1.
“Her med test results have been favorable,” husband Michael McGillan said. “She has returned to work on an abbreviated schedule.”
Jim Phipps is shown in a 2008 file photo in his role of tennis coach at Lancaster Country Day School.
BLAINE SHAHAN | Staff photographer file photo
‘One of the greatest human beings I’ve ever met’
Friends and coworkers remembered Phipps this week as a caring teacher who eschewed texting, wore bright orange zoot suits to play harmonica and sing blues with his band and constantly checked on others, despite dealing with his own health concerns.
“He didn’t text,” recalled Michele Duroni, Burrowes Elementary School principal. “He said he wanted to hear my voice.” Duroni met Phipps when she was 8 and he became her tennis coach. Phipps also babysat for Duroni and her brother when the pair’s parents traveled.
“Even as an adult, when I would talk with him, he would always offer words of wisdom and advice,” Duroni said. “He was a really unique individual and just had a gift for connecting with others.”
“This is a seismic shock to the community. He might be one of the greatest human beings I’ve ever met,” said Zac Kraft, Lancaster Country Day’s athletic director, praising the way Phipps welcomed students with warmth and humor every morning.
“He was hilarious. He had many ‘Jimmy-isms’ to greet kids,” Kraft said, adding that he loved to watch students’ facial expressions when Phipps would ask them for money. “You owe me $5,” Kraft recalled Phipps joking. “Where’s my $5?”
“The outpouring of love for Jim and support for his family makes it clear just how much he touched the lives of countless students, colleagues and families,” said Emilie Kosoff, Lancaster Country Day’s head of school. “Jim invested deeply in others and was a keystone of the LCDS community for decades.”
In this May 2015 file photo, Lancaster Country Day’s Sebastian Pena and Drew Kopan posed with tennis coach Jim Phipps after they finished fourth in the PIAA doubles tournament.
LNP FILE PHOTO
Michael Schmelder, a former Lancaster Country Day information technology director, treasured the way Phipps kept in contact.
“I don’t really have a lot of people in my life,” Schmelder said. “He would always reach out and say, ‘Hey, I’m thinking about you.’”
Huge onstage presence
Beky Weidner, who teaches art at Lancaster Country Day, first met Phipps a decade ago, but became closer when the two shared bus duty two years ago.
“He was just so full of life,” she said. “He would always have time for kids and was just always there for them.” Phipps’s gratitude also impressed Weidner. “Even when he was having these difficult health problems, Jim always talked about how grateful he was for so many things in his life.”
This undated photo shows Jim Phipps, the Lancaster Country Day tennis coach and teacher who died Sunday, performing as Jimmy Blue. He was the frontman and harmonica player with the band Jimmy Blue and the Jilted Playboys.
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Weidner introduced Phipps to her husband, Larry Penner, a keyboard player who joined Phipps’s band, Jimmy Blue and the Jilted Playboys.
“Jim was one of those people who had boundless energy and enthusiasm for music,” Penner said. “He had a way of making everybody feel welcome, and that was part of what made him such a great singer and performer. He just loved to get people excited and connected in a really sincere way.”
The band’s bass guitarist, Alex Mazzucca, met Phipps about 2 1/2 years ago through Mazzucca’s then-4-year-old daughter, who introduced the gym teacher she adored during a school event.
Jim Phipps was named to the Black Tennis Hall of Fame in 2024.
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“He was so approachable and friendly,” Mazzucca recalled. “He just always conveyed gratitude, to us, and not only just the band, but when we would play live, everyone in the audience felt appreciated by him.”
Connor Stoehr, the band’s drummer, called Phipps one of his best friends.
“He’s the type of guy that (could) make everyone in the room his friend,” Stoehr said. “He’d often make little jokes about people in the audience, which they loved.”
Art Lumsden, a Lancaster guitar player who is not a band member, met Jim 20 years ago through jamming sessions and Lumsden’s son, who attended Lancaster Country Day.
“He was just bigger than life,” Lumsden said of Phipps. “He was just so entertaining and hilarious onstage.”
The guitarist recalled traveling to Chicago with Phipps about 15 years ago for what the tennis coach called his blues pilgrimage. The musicians spent about four nights playing at different jazz clubs.
“Jim knew everyone,” Lumsden said of Chicago musicians and club owners.
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