Philip "Phil" Paschall (May 12, 1946 – July 10, 2026)
Phil Paschall, a man who spent his life protecting the environment and learning the stories of places and the people who loved them, died on Friday July 10, 2026. He was 80 years old.
Through a high school friend, John Bailey, Phil discovered PATC in 1977, a connection that would come to define much of his life's work. He became deeply involved with PATC as the club's land acquisition officer starting in 1980, using his legal training to help secure land for hiking trails and cabins near the AT in Virginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. He provided many decades of legal assistance for trail and cabin land acquisition for PATC, work that was formally recognized with an Honorary Life and Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003, which read in part: “He is a living history book on land conservation – his expertise and historical knowledge simply can’t be matched.”
In 1992, he helped co-found the Land Trust of Virginia, serving on its Board of Directors and helping the organization grow to protect over 38,000 acres of Virginia land – farmland, forest, and battlefields. Phil also played major supporting roles for other organizations, including the Virginia Chapter of the Nature Conservancy as a board member between 1982 and 1988 and the Rolling Ridge Foundation as secretary from 1998 to 2006.
He served on the Board of Directors of the Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy, and in 2020 was personally recognized by the Superintendent of Shenandoah National Park for his work coordinating the conservation of land connected to the Deep Ponds Natural Preserve near Grottoes, Virginia, patiently working with the landowner over years to see it through. He also volunteered as Project Coordinator to help permanently dedicate land at Tanners Ridge to the Shenandoah National Park.
The family suggests donations to PATC and the Land Trust of Virginia, organizations that carry forward the work Phil devoted himself to, protecting the land and history he loved.