Phillip LeRoy Rabin

Phillip LeRoy Rabin passed away on the morning of Friday, October 25, 2019. He was surrounded by his family, in his home in Park City, Utah.  He fought endlessly to overcome many different health complications until the very end, the most recent being a traumatic brain injury after a fall off of a treadmill.

Phil was born on February 22, 1933 in Los Angeles, California to his loving parents Millie Feldman Rabin and Abe Rabin Jr.  Phil unfortunately lost his father, Abe, when he was 8 years old. Afterwards, he started delivering papers each morning before school to help his mother pay the bills. Phil’s claim to fame was that he was in TV series Our Gang, as an extra member in Spanky’s Gang. Our Gang was subsequently known as The Little Rascals.

Phil attended a military school after grade school and later went to Fairfax High School and graduated in 1951. Phil enlisted in the Air Force and served as a flight mechanic for the Boeing B-47 Strategic Bomber Plane from 1951-1954.

 Phil had a love for the outdoors and sports. He played on a minor league baseball team in LA as a young adult. He later took up golf and skiing which he did avidly any chance he could. Phil found that Utah was the perfect place for both and moved to Utah in 1972. He was a partial owner of a sporting goods store, called Sid Sports in Park City, which was eventually sold to Jan’s Sports. He went on to own a bike shop, then switched gears and became a sales representative for many different companies and traveled all over the west coast. Phil met many of his closest friends through his work, especially in Park City, where he physically built a duplex off Lowell Ave (near Town Lift) that he could ski to after a long day on his favorite mountain. He liked to tell people he built the highest house on the side of the mountain, until one day there was one built higher than it. He then went to bragging that he built the second highest house on the side of the mountain, which is still true today.

 Phil was married four times, although he always said his latest wife, Renee Arth-Rabin, was his favorite and the most beautiful one. They met when she rented out the bottom half of his duplex in 1972. They were married on November 14, 1989 and were just shy of reaching their 30th wedding anniversary this year. They later had a daughter, Mara, who Phil loved tremendously. He gave her every opportunity to do any sport she ever wanted and loved watching her do all of them. Phil never missed an opportunity to  see her compete, even if it was just at practice.  Phil and Mara had a father-daughter bond that was truly something special. After each unfortunate health issue, Phil worked so hard to get better so he could see his daughter graduate from college and then get married. He also had a special relationship with Mara’s husband, Joe Discoe, who he loved like his own son.

Phil had a charisma about him that people were drawn to; everyone that met him loved him. He had the biggest personality, which came along with an abundance of dirty jokes. More importantly, he had the biggest heart and cared so much about his friends and family.  He would do anything to take care of the people he loved. Phil was an amazing man who will be missed very much.

A celebration of life will take place on Saturday, November 9th from 5:00pm-7:30pm where the family asks everyone to bring their best memories of Phil to share. The event will be held at 13433 Alexis Drive, Kamas, UT which is located across from Brown’s Canyon, approximately one mile from Exit 4 off of I-40.