Philip Herwig

Philip Carl Herwig, 83, of Milaca, Minnesota, passed away September 9, 2025. Phil was born June 11, 1942, in Brooklyn, NY, the son of Philip and LaVerda Herwig. Raised in the Cobble Hill neighborhood behind his father’s macrame mail order business, they sold macrame craft supplies such as cords and beads and insignias to sailors.

Phil graduated in 1960 from John Jay High School in Brooklyn. He next attended Brooklyn College, earning his bachelor’s degree and first master’s degree in social science. Phil advanced to the University of Pennsylvania under Title IV of the National Defense Education Act fellowship in 1967 to earn his second master’s degree in demography. Phil began a brief teaching stint at Penn State University.

In 1968 Phil married Dorothy (Morris) Moe. They remained married for twelve years. In 1980, he married Dorothy Steeves. They were married for ten years. On October 14, 2017, Philip married his soul mate, Kelly Bryson. They enjoyed seven wonderful years together, enjoying traveling, working and building around his beloved farm, and debating all things politics and government.

Phil lived his life unapologetically his way. He loved the Lord, his family, and this country dearly. He cherished justice, life for the unborn, freedom, and limited government. In 1963, he snuck out of his dad’s home in Brooklyn to fly to Washington, D. C. to join Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

In 1973, the kid from a rough Brooklyn neighborhood, nicknamed “Hell’s Half Acre”, moved his young family to a farm outside Pease, MN, where he had trouble sleeping the first week due the quiet. He called his beloved farm “The Refuge.”

In 1992 Phil began his dream of serving the country in politics, running against Minnesota’s Second District Congressional incumbent, James Oberstar. He made Oberstar sweat a second time in 1994. His final candidacy was for Minnesota Governor in 2010 with Barb Davis White as running mate. The beautiful Ms. Davis White passed away in 2023 of cancer, after serving in overseas missions in Kurdistan at the Dream Center, evangelizing and teaching English.

Philip will be greatly missed by his surviving family members: his wife Kelly, children Peter (Mandy) and David (Shari), grandchildren Gavin, Aidan, Lily and Nathaniel; stepsons Brian Steeves, Preston, George, and William Hollman, and step-grandchildren Erin and Dillon Steeves, of whom he was very encouraging and supportive. He is also survived by father-in-law Joel Bryson and cousins George and Deborah Hunsinger of Princeton, NJ, faculty members of Princeton Theological Seminary.

Philip was preceded in death by his father, Philip Herwig Sr., mother LaVerda (Hunsinger) Herwig, and sister, Eve Herwig.

Memorial service will be held Friday, September 12, 2025 at 11 AM at Milaca Evangelical Free Church. Visitation will take place one hour prior to the service at the church on Friday.  A luncheon reception will immediately follow the service.