Oak Harbor business owner to celebrate 100th birthday

Longtime Oak Harbor business owner and Navy veteran Gene Phelps, now with a century of wisdom under his belt, has no intention of slowing down.

Phelps, founder of Gene’s Art and Frame on Pioneer Way, turns a whopping 100 years old on April 16 and is inviting the whole town to celebrate with him.

The public party will take place from 12 to 2 p.m. April 23 at Phelps’ store, and there will be food, cake and giveaways. Party-goers can also paint rocks for Phelps to keep in his garden.

Phelps grew up in New Orleans, La. and joined the Navy at age 17. His naval career began in Texas at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, where his job was to prepare airplanes for pilots in training.

“I was in charge of an airplane and a pilot that was training, so I took care of him and the plane,” Phelps said. “I used to get in and start the plane up and warm it up for him.”

When World War II broke out, Phelps was assigned to a patrol ship that chased Japanese submarines in the Pacific Ocean. He remembered times when he and the rest of the crew had to be silent aboard the ship, because the submarines’ radar could detect even the smallest sound through the water.

Phelps was stationed in Japan at the end of the war. He said he and his fellow sailors were thrilled when the war ended, but it would still be weeks before everyone could return home.

It was “risky” to be in Japan at that time, he said, but he still enjoyed exploring Kobe, where he was stationed.

“It kind of was a little scary when you went out by yourself in uniform, because we didn’t know how their reaction would be with somebody that beat them in the war,” he said.

Japan was vastly different from anything he had experienced living in the U.S. He recalled with a chuckle the uniformed train workers whose job it was to push people into the jam-packed train cars together.

After living in Japan for three months, Phelps could finally go home.

“I remember we used to stand out every day, and they’d call your name out for who’s going back to the States, and everybody would be so anxious,” he said.

When his turn finally came, he and the others returning with him packed their sea bags and took smaller boats out to the aircraft carrier that would be their ride back to the U.S. The larger ship was anchored a ways out to sea, because the water farther inland was too shallow for it.

Rope ladders dangled over the ship’s side. Phelps could still picture his fellow sailors, their sea bags in tow, scaling the ladders together, invigorated at the prospect of being reunited with their families.

When Phelps arrived back in New Orleans, he got into the construction business, taking a job with a company that built military housing. The job took him all over the country, including to California, where every day on his way to work he drove by an orange grove that other construction workers were tearing down to build Disneyland.

In the 1960s, his construction work brought him to Oak Harbor, where he helped build the Capehart housing at Crescent Harbor. By this time, he was married with kids and didn’t want to keep moving his family from state to state as his company sent him to new construction sites. His children were struggling from changing schools so often, and he wanted to give them the stability of a permanent home.

Phelps said he knew Oak Harbor would be that home when he saw other children playing outside.

“When I got here, I thought, ‘Boy, this is a quaint little town,’” he said.

He decided to strike out on his own as an independent contractor, installing drywall and painting. The company he purchased his paint from eventually asked him to start his own small paint store, and he opened Gene’s Paints in 1967 in the old Oak Harbor bank, which has since been torn down.

Within about a year, Phelps moved his store to its current location at 250 Southeast Pioneer Way. The space had previously been a car repair garage, and Phelps said it was in desperate need of a thorough cleaning when he first moved his business in.

“This place was a mess,” he said. “There was soot all over. It was terrible.”

After giving the space a much-needed makeover, the once-garage was ready for business. Phelps soon expanded into the art field and added custom framing to the services he offered. He still worked as a contractor by day, and when he came home at night, he would build frames in his basement.

Through his shop, Phelps built more than just frames; he also built relationships with members of the community. Phelps became friends with all kinds of people around Oak Harbor, and those friendships have spanned generations.

“Their kids come in, and they remember me,” he said.

Though he’s been in business for 55 years, the soon-to-be centenarian has no plans to retire any time soon.

“I had a guy come in one time and said, ‘When are you going to retire?’ I said, ‘Maybe when I’m about 125-or-30 years,” Phelps said with a laugh. “I don’t have any desire to retire. I’ve always been very active. I wouldn’t be able to sit still.”