Cali Jean Phillips Grimshaw, our beloved and cherished wife, mother, grand and great grandmother, peacefully passed from this life to a better, July 15, 2024, ending a long and courageous battle with cancer. Cali filled the world with love, caring, kindness and remarkable accomplishment. She is deeply missed.
Born the oldest of the six children of Chick and Sherry Phillips in Monterey, CA, August 10, 1956, Cali grew up in Salt Lake City, then Bountiful, Utah and finally in Portland, Oregon. There, after attending BYU, she met Peter Grimshaw. They married in the Salt Lake Temple in 1976.
They moved to New Jersey where their oldest son, Richard, was born. Then back to Portland where daughter Charlee and son Adam were born, and where Cali began to oil paint, a talent that would greatly influence her life and those of many others.
Another corporate transfer took the family to Chicago, and another Cali transfer brought them back to Lake Oswego, Oregon. While the east and Midwest were beautiful, she never felt quite at home there. She was a western girl.
Peter’s work took them to Salt Lake City and Utah became her final home, in Sandy, where the kids grew up, and then in Cedar City.
Cali had a deep and abiding love of the Lord Jesus Christ that permeated every aspect of her life. She was an active, lifelong member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, serving in all its auxiliaries, including Relief Society president twice. She particularly loved serving in the Cedar City Utah Temple with Peter. Her goodness was felt by all who knew her well and many who did not. She never lost her charming innocence mixed with just a little naiveté.
She has “best friends” everywhere she lived and cherished each one for the richness they brought to her life and home.
Cali was active. She loved being a mom, a homemaker and a grandma. She skied and was a runner. After a back injury ended running, she took up lap swimming, calculating that over the years she logged enough miles to swim from the New Jersey shore to Paris and back. Twice.
Cali’s talents and gifts were many. As a teen, she became an accomplished pianist. Oil painting became her adult passion. Then teaching others to paint in her home studio. Classes were never large and students were carefully selected, deeply loved and competently taught. Their families were amazed at the wonderful works of art painted by students from nine to ninety.
She enjoyed the family ranch on Kanarra Mountain, but she loved the sea. Her favorite place in all the world was Canon Beach, Oregon. Scarcely a year went by without family outings to Cannon Beach. In later years it became her favorite subject to paint
She was also an excellent writer, and for a time authored a popular online humor column. She loved choirs and served as accompanist or choir member for many choirs across the country.
Her greatest delights were her grandchildren, all, of course, were well above average! She would drop everything, anytime, to play with her precious grandchildren.
Cali leaves behind her husband of 48 years, Peter Grimshaw, and son Richard of Cedar City; daughter, Charlee Bryan (Joshua), of American Fork, Utah; son, Adam (Deborah), of Rigby, Idaho; eight grandchildren; Will Bryan (Andrea), Anna, Lily and Grayson Bryan, Nathan, Levi, James and Lydia Grimshaw; one great grandson, Miles Bryan; father and mother, Chick and Sherry Phillips of Bountiful, Utah; and five scattered siblings: Tauni Hill (Steve), Matt Phillips (Lisa), Mike Phillips (Becky), Tyler Phillips (Sherry) and Holly Kerr (Rand). She followed another great grandson, Wesley Bryan, to the next life.
Public viewings will be Friday, July 19, 6 – 8 pm, and Saturday, July 20, 9:30 -10:30 am at the Canyon View Stake Center of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, located at the corner of north Main Street and Fiddlers Canyon Road in Cedar City, Utah. Funeral services will be Saturday at 11:00 am in the stake center. They will be streamed on the Southern Utah Mortuary website. Burial will immediately follow in the Cedar City Cemetery.
The family thanks everyone for their faith and prayers on Cali’s and her family’s behalf. We also thank Ethan Bunker and his team at Sun Tree Hospice for their extraordinary care of Cali these past months; and Southern Utah Mortuary for providing excellent funeral arrangements and direction
To view livestream of Cali’s service or to leave online condolences, please visit his obituary page at www.mortuary.org.