Richard "Dick" Phelan
Richard "Dick" Phelan
Captain, USN
Captain Richard “Dick” Phelan was born and raised in Davenport, Iowa, and graduated from Davenport High School in 1960. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1964 and went on to pursue naval flight training in Pensacola, Florida, and Corpus Christi, Texas. In December 1965, Phelan received his flight wings and naval aviator status.
The following January, Phelan began training to fly P-2s with Patrol Squadron 24 in Jacksonville, Florida. He met his wife of 57 years, Edna Moore, in Jacksonville, and they got married in Orange Park, Florida, in March 1966.
Phelan moved to Norfolk, Virginia, that same month and was deployed to the Mediterranean. He transitioned to flying P-3s and deployed to Iceland and Lajes Air Force Base in the Atlantic in 1968.
In 1969, he began a master’s program in operations analysis at the Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey, California. He graduated in 1971 and moved to Coronado, California, where he attended Vietnamese language school and survival training, preparing for deployment to Vietnam.
Phelan served in the Vietnam War from January 1972 to January 1973. He lived in hamlets and flew into different areas throughout the country, creating reports for Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker, the U.S. Ambassador to South Vietnam. Phelan was awarded the Bronze Star for his service during the war.
After Vietnam, Phelan served with several Navy patrol plane squadrons, including an operational test and evaluation squadron in Key West, Florida, and Patuxent River, Maryland, that tested anti-submarine warfare weapon systems.
Phelan was the commanding officer of Navy Squadron VP-45 from 1982-1983, which consisted of 12 anti-submarine warfare airplanes, 75 officers and 300 enlisted men and women. The squadron was routinely deployed to the Mediterranean Sea.
He served as Chief of Staff for Patrol Wing 11 in 1983-1984, then continued his education at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. He obtained two additional master’s degrees — a master’s in National Security and Strategic Studies and a Master of Science from Salve Regina College.
Phelan went on to serve on the Secretary of Defense’s staff at the Pentagon for three years. In July 1988, he received orders to move to Auburn to become a professor of naval science and the commanding officer of the Naval ROTC program. He oversaw the program for three years before retiring from the navy in 1991. Phelan retired as a decorated veteran, having been awarded the Bronze Star for his service in Vietnam, the Legion of Merit Award, the Meritorious Service Medal with a Gold Star and several other medals throughout his 27-year military career.
Phelan and his family decided to put roots down in Auburn. He began a second career in financial planning, joining fellow Rotary Club member Ted Wilson at Wilson Investment Group. Phelan enthusiastically served on various Auburn civic organizations over the years, including serving as the first chair of the Auburn Veterans Committee. He is the past president of the Auburn Rotary Club and the Retired Officers Association of East Alabama as well as the past chairman of the Auburn United Methodist Church Financial Committee and the Naval Academy Blue and Gold. He has served on the board of directors for the State of Alabama Special Olympics for the last 15 years and was selected as Lee County’s 2013 Distinguished Citizen of the Year by the Boy Scouts of America.
Phelan served the Auburn community as a member of the City Council for 16 years. During eight of those years, he served as the Mayor Pro Tem for former Mayor Bill Ham.
Phelan retired from Wilson Investment group in 2021. He passed away on Feb. 14, 2024.