Phil Kane

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An uplifting hand for those striving to move forward.

Saved to Serve: How Phil’s Story Continues to Inspire Generations

As the second oldest of five siblings, Phil was born in 1938 in Brooklyn, New York, to a working-class Catholic Family. Phil’s father was employed by the New York City Mass Transit system in several roles during Phil’s childhood, while his mother focused on being a stay-at-home mom for Phil and his four siblings. Phil’s younger years and associated shenanigans were pretty much what you would expect for kids growing up in the 1950’s in New York City.

Phil joined the United States Navy after high school. Although Phil served his nation with honor and dignity in the USN, it was during this time that his struggles with alcohol really began. Phil developed a serious drinking problem during these years and became a full-fledged alcoholic, thus setting the stage for years of struggle in the throes of addiction.

Phil returned to Brooklyn after his service in the navy and eventually met the love of his life, Lois. Phil and Lois were married and started a family. The early years of the marriage were riddled with struggles due to Phil’s drinking; he was not living up to his responsibilities as a husband and father. The drinking came very close on multiple occasions to putting an end to Phil and Lois’s marriage. There is a large age gap between Phil and Lois’s second son, John, and their daughter, Linda. It was during this time that the marriage almost collapsed, but God had other plans.

Phil eventually quit drinking in 1969 and put those demons behind him with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous. 1975 brought the true groundbreaking moment in Phil and Lois’s lives and marriage…their acceptance of Jesus Christ as their Savior. Salvation was basically a Saul-to-Paul experience for Phil. He was filled with a burning zeal for two things: helping people with their struggles and introducing them to his beloved Jesus. He saw his own troubles and shortcomings in people and knew the only ultimate answer to their problems was Jesus.

Phil was always a very hard worker, but this transformation in his life enabled him to finally focus on his career without the distraction of alcohol and with Jesus by his side. Phil ultimately had a very successful career in a variety of capacities in the food business, culminating in his retirement as the President of Keller’s Butter in Harleysville, Pennsylvania, in 1999. After Phil “retired”, he and Lois launched P&L Associates together, a highly successful food brokerage company that markets various food manufacturers’ products to the foodservice distribution industry. P&L is still in existence 25 years later, but has since been split into two different companies that are individually led by Phil and Lois’s son John and their daughter Linda.

What followed Phil’s salvation all the way through his death in 2019 was an insatiable desire to help people, particularly those forgotten by society. An immeasurable amount of time was spent in hospitals, prisons, homeless shelters, mental health facilities, drug/alcohol programs, etc., doing anything and everything he could to reach the folks society thought were unreachable – – or not worth reaching. Phil sincerely believed that to truly help you needed to GO to where the help was needed.

Phil’s beloved Lois was there by his side through all the crazy times and his children (sometimes begrudgingly but also learning from Phil’s example) were involved in all these efforts. It is this relentless energy that Phil possessed to help others that is a large part of the inspiration of Uplifted Foundation.

Uplifted Foundation strives to carry on Phil’s legacy through action, not just words.