Philip Renelle July 3, 1917 – July 11, 2014

Services for friends and family will be held at the Johnson Funeral Home in Morgan Hill on Thursday, July 17, 2014, at 11:00 A.M., and burial will be at Mt. Hope Cemetery. In lieu of donations, please plant something to honor his reverence of nature. Deceased’s funeral arrangements : Johnson Funeral Home
 Phil Renelle, christened Filippo Rinella, was born in San Jose on July 3, 1917, and was the sixth and last child of Giuseppe and Carmella (Rubino) Rinella from Trabia, Sicily.
 He grew up in Evergreen, where the family had apricot orchards. He attended San Jose High School, working at the Joe Simica and Renelle Tractor Co. and as a janitor at Roosevelt High after school.
 During the Great Depression, he and his brother ran orchards and vineyards for the Bank of America, had a well-drilling business and ran their own family orchards.
 Phil, who was an excellent dancer, met his wife, Adeline Silva Renelle, known by the family as Dolly, at the Majestic Ballroom. They married in 1947.
 He became an inspector at the G.E. Motor Plant. Ever an avid orchardist, they purchased a small ranch in Morgan Hill in 1956, where they grew prunes, walnuts, apricots and cherries.
 He was a hard-working, no-nonsense man who could fix anything and possessed a dry sense of humor that often caught others by surprise. Though a quiet and private man, he was always willing to show others how to tend vegetables and trees, repair vehicles or machinery, or perform electrical work or carpentry. He had the gift of dowsing and witched wells for many people.
 He also enjoyed bowling, checkers, poker, playing piano (by ear!) and was a devoted Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune fan.
 He was preceded in death (2012) by his wife of 65 years, Adeline, and leaves behind their children, daughter Daphne Renelle and her children, Stephanie Landon and Paul Landon, daughter Marlene Rinella Caredio (Len), and her children, Bobby Budde (Sonia), Skye Budde, Jordan Silcox and great-granddaughter Eva Silcox, and son Phil D. Renelle (Marsha), and their children Meghan Renelle (mother Joanne McPhee), Kendall Renelle and Elliott Miller.
 He lived a long life, was a Jack-of-all-trades who could adapt with the times, and always stood his ground.
 We imagine that our own family’s Fred and Ginger are now dancing cheek to cheek to the big band in the sky.