Pastor Phil Fulton and his wife Sharon. (Photo by Kimberly Browning)
Pastor Phil Fulton, one of the most active and well-liked ministers in the area, recently passed away at the age of 75. (Photo by Kimberly Browning)
By Ashley McCarty
People’s Defender
Loved and revered by the community, dedicated devotee of Christ, John Phillip Roger Fulton, better known as “Phil”, recently passed away.
Fulton was born on Sept. 10, 1946, at the home of parents Charles and Carolyn Fulton in Peebles, Ohio. He was a graduate of Franklin Local School in Locust Grove, Ohio, in 1964.
“We went to school together and he was a couple of years older than me. We didn’t really start dating until my senior year. That was 1965,” said w ife Sharon Fulton. At the age of 18, he began working with electrical contractor LE Myers in Minerva, Ohio.
“He had been there two weeks, and he had climbed the tower of this substation. 138,000 volts arced over to him. He hung on, and if you ever were around him, you knew he had crippled hands. Where he hung on, it went through that arm, through his chest and out his leg. It blew his shoe off. It’s a miracle. He died twice, but they brought him back in the hospital. That was his testimony. He believes he lived to do the work of the Lord,” said Sharon Fulton.
When Sharon Fulton graduated, Fulton gifted her an engagement ring.
“We eloped. We went to Ashville, Nc. He gave me an engagement ring for graduation, but we hadn’t really set a date because he was still under the doctor’s care for his accident. After graduation, I got a job at Nationwide Insurance in Columbus. I stayed with a cousin, but [I didn’t like] being away from home and him. I sent him a letter and said ‘if we’re going to get married, let’s do it now. I can’t stand being up here without you.’ So, on Labor Day weekend, we went to Ashville. We left Thursday evening and drove all the way,” said Sharon Fulton.
It was there, as they were getting their marriage license, that they found a place to get married.
“Phil casually asked the guy if he knew of a good minister in the area that would marry us. He said ‘yes, I’ll take you to my minister.’ So he took us to this huge Methodist church, and we got married on Sept. 2, 1966. We didn’t have much money, so we couldn’t do any sightseeing. We didn’t tell our parents for a couple of weeks, but we couldn’t stay apart, so we finally told them,” said Sharon Fulton. That same year, in October, Fulton surrendered his life to Christ.
“He started going to church with me. He only went once in a while at his parent’s church. I always went to church, and he started going with me, and it got a hold of him,” she said. They would go on to have two children, Beth and Brian.
After a three-year recovery from his accident, Fulton was finally released to go back to work in June of 1967. He went to work for NCR in Dayton, OH. After a layoff there, he started work at General Motors, Delco Moraine Plant, where he retired in July of 1997 after 30 years of service.
In 1975, he became the pastor of Union Hill Church, where he served faithfully for 46 years.
In 1997, the Ten Commandments monuments were placed in front of Adams County High Schools. In June 2003, they were ordered removed by Federal Court Order and Fulton was the first pastor in the United States to be arrested over the Ten Commandments case.
He appeared on Fox News in New York, Ny., to defend his stance on the monuments. He traveled to Montgomery, Al., in 2003 to support then Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore, in support of the Ten Commandments monument in the rotunda of the judicial building in Montgomery. He was arrested again for criminal trespassing.
In 2006, one of his proudest moments was the opportunity to open the United States Congress in prayer.
“Jean Schmidt was our senator at that time. When she was running for office, this was her district, and she met Phil and became attached to him. She got him in there. She visited his visitation and sent flowers,” said Sharon Fulton.
In May of 2006, he became the President of Pastors Against Drug Addiction, which later became Adams County for Christian Values. He also started the Reformers Unanimous (RU) program in Adams County in 2007.
In 2008, he joined a steering committee to start a Chaplain Program at Adams County Regional Medical Center, where he still served as a Volunteer Chaplain.
“[He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2013]. Anytime you hear the word cancer, you think they’re going to die right now. It was a shock, and we both cried. The doctors tried every chemo and radiation they could. Nothing worked. The last treatment he had was back in the summer, and he got so sick that he told the doctor he wasn’t going to take anymore. He said, whatever happens, happens. The doctor explained that eventually, it would metastasize. He still lived a good life. Our granddaughter got married last year in June. She wanted the whole family to go. He really wasn’t able to make the trip, but we prayed that he would have enough strength to make the trip out there and marry her. He did. After that, he wanted to go to the Smokey Mountains one last time. We went in November and stayed for a week,” said Sharon Fulton.
Fulton passed away on Jan. 19, 2022. He was 75.
“I was just broken. I’ve always depended on him so much. I trusted his judgment on everything. When he passed, I thought, ‘oh, what am I going to do?’ He and I talked [before his passing], and he said, ‘we’re born to die. When God is through, we have to be through. We just have to give our lives over to Him.’ His granddaughter is having such a hard time. She began to blame God for it. He told her it was not God’s fault. It’s just life. When God says it’s time to go, it’s time. He didn’t fight it. He was ready to go,” said Fulton.
Fulton leaves behind five grandchildren, Jessica Hicks, Jacob Aber, Jesse Swearingen, Daryl Morgan, Jeremiah Hall; five great-grandchildren, Camri Aber, Braylon and Jesslyn Swearingen and Izabela and Malikai Skaggs.
Also surviving are three brothers, Tom, Bob, and Glenn Fulton, and two sisters, Sally McDaniel and Susie Ross. He had many brother and sisters-in-law, and many beloved nieces and nephews that he loved like his own grandchildren.
The family would like to thank the Wallace-Thompson Funeral Home, the Adams County Cancer Center and The National Church Residences Hospice, with a special thank you to the Union Hill Church and the churches in the surrounding counties. Additional gratitude to the many prayers, cards, calls and food.
