Barbara Jean "Dukie" Phillips

Born June 4, 1938 in Santa Monica Calif. as Barbara Jean Phillips (aka "Dukie") (Her daddy wanted to be an actor in Hollywood, but didn't like the way Hollywood was run by agents only!) Dukie moved to Edmonds, Washington in the mid 1940’s where the population was around 900. She attended St Nicholas (fourth grade) in Seattle and along with me at her side as a first grader, we would take the bus all the way from Edmonds to Seattle bus station and we would transfer to another bus to arrive at St. Nick. Dukie began leading her life as "mom" way back then, as a child. She rode me all around Edmonds on her bike until I was about 10 years old. She was given and earned the nick name "thunder thighs" since it was nothing short of a serious workout. Dukie literally could take anyone down in Indian leg wrestling…. and brother Ward can attest to that. She attended Edmonds Grade School beginning in the 5th Grade and graduated from Edmonds High School. Dukie lettered in most every one of the "girls" sports, played flute in the band throughout High School, became a state wide Tailor/Seamstress and Cherry Pie Baking Contest winner at several Washington State Fairs and through her close association with 4-H. Upon graduation, she attended Stephens College, Columbia Missouri, earning a degree in Aviation Management along with her Commercial Pilots License. Dukie initially studied fashion design at Stephens but then thought that she would like to be an airline stewardess. After graduation and securing a pilot's license, Dukie realized that she could combine her knowledge of air travel with business management. She returned to the Edmonds area and worked for a relative in their travel agency for a short time before moving to work in a travel agency in Anchorage, Alaska. It was love at first site, smitten with Alaska's beauty with wilderness, independent people and hardy lifestyle. She became a member of the Civil Air Patrol and flew small planes loaded with men and supplies to Alaskan fishing camps. She often laughingly shared one particular story of fishermen whom she was sent to pick up and fly to Anchorage. However, upon seeing that she was a woman, (and she was young at that!) they declined the ride. She said “fine” in her disapproving and cryptic style and flew off to her next destination. In 1965 she accepted a position in San Francisco to manage Schweitzer Travelcades and subsequently purchased the agency in 1970, renaming it Barbary Coast Travel. Dukie chalked up a personal travel record of 200,000 miles in a single year while running this business that specialized in customized deluxe personal travel and corporate travel. Her agency was “home” to a dozen rock music bands for whom she arranged all travel for their tours and negotiated damages with hotels resulting from “after-hours” parties. She was one of thirty women in Northern California who owned their own travel agency. The other 200 agencies were owned by men. Many times Dukie recalled the difficulties in running a business so dominated by men. Banks were reluctant to give business loans to women-run enterprises. Never one to accept NO as a final answer, she persevered and kept moving on. By 1980, Dukie became anxious about being apart from her family and friends in the Northwest. This prompted her move to Seattle where she worked at the Doug Fox agency for a year before opening her own agency in 1981, East West Travel. She built a business once again and in a fashion so familiar to her, she slugged her way through the changing landscape of the travel industry brought about first by deregulation of the airlines and then the eclipse of travel agent roles filled by the almighty Internet. She concluded that only larger agencies could withstand the continuing shockwaves occurring within her industry. She merged East West with Scan Travel in 1992, thus becoming Scan-East West Travel. This entity acquired two agencies between 2009 and 2012 (Let’s Go Travel in 2009 and Lake Union Travel in 2012) and the acquisition of these companies allowed Scan-East West to become a full service enterprise with several dozen employees, a number of whom were multi-lingual and experts in all geographies, and enjoying a stelar reputation. Dukie served on a number of airline, hotel and other professional boards. In 2012, she joined the SKAL board and became its President in 2016. Scan-East West eventually sold to Experion and Dukie continued working very near to the end. While she herself was deeply familiar with all geographic regions of the world, Dukie focused predominantly on Africa and Asia and the many countries on these continents. Up until 2 weeks prior to her passing and nearly 60 years after beginning her career, she was planning travel for clients. Her personal favorite destinations were safaris in various African countries, historical sites in Egypt, and Cambodia, but she was a woman whose profession WAS her hobby. Literally, there was not a place in this world failing to arouse her curiosity and attested to with experiences in well over a hundred countries Her passports over the years were filled with beautiful visas, stamps and dates. Her contact list was filled with names of family, clients who became good friends and the memorable individuals that she met during her travels. Once in her orbit, Dukie never let you go! Both men and women admired Dukie. She was generously kind and fun-spirited. She was tough yet compassionate. I think she was born ‘liberated’ and this accounts for her “open door” attitude toward everyone that she met. I have not known anyone more passionate about urging girls and nudging boys in their process of becoming. Dukie was a nurturer, a safe haven and fiercely loyal. She is survived by her siblings: Carol Valdine Phillips Thornton of Whidbey Island; J Ward Phillips of Edmonds and Sequim; and Mary A Phillips of Kingston. Celebration of Life Sept 18, email Mary Phillips for details: [email protected]