On December 11, 2025, Philip Klubes, age 90, of Rockville, Maryland passed away comfortably surrounded by family. Beloved Husband of the late Barbra Jane Klubes, devoted father of Benjamin Klubes (Risa Bender) and David Klubes (Felisa Neuringer), brother of the late Gerald Klubes and cherished grandfather of Sophia Klubes, Joshua Klubes and Sam Klubes and uncle to James Ballantine (Lisa) and great-uncle to Jake Ballantine.

Phil was born on June 23, 1935 in Brooklyn, New York’s Williamsburg neighborhood to Rose and Barney Klubes. After graduating Stuyvesant High School in 1952, he attended Queens College majoring in chemistry and graduating in 1956. He then earned a Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the University of Minnesota in 1962. He was awarded a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard University Medical School where he met Barbra Jane Ballantine who became his wife of 58 years until her passing in 2022. In 1965, Phil became an Assistant Professor of Pharmacology at The George Washington University School of Medicine where he taught and did cancer chemotherapy research until he retired as a Full Professor in 1999. He took research sabbaticals at Yale Medical School and the National Cancer Institute at NIH. He also served on the Institutional Review Board at Children’s National Medical Center. He was author or co-author of dozens of peer reviewed scientific research articles. He was a community leader serving on the Board of Temple Emanuel in Kensington, MD and during his Leisure World retirement as President of his cooperative there. In 2022, he moved to JCC Rockville Ring House where he was active in the Iris Music Project.

Phil was an avid fisherman having been introduced to fishing in the Land of 10,000 Lakes (Minnesota) during graduate school. He fished with friends and his two sons in the Chesapeake Bay, Florida Keys and Nags Head, NC where the family vacationed for decades every summer. In recent years, Phil’s passion for teaching extended to the time he spent with his only granddaughter, Sophia, and his two grandsons, Josh and Sam.

Funeral services will be held on Sunday, December 14, 2025 at 1PM at the Chapel at Norbeck Memorial Gardens, 16225 Batchellors Forest Road, Olney, MD 20832. The service will be livestreamed at: https://dmvmemorials.com/obituary/philipklubes/

Memorial contributions may be made to: Jeanette’s Fishing Pier, Nags Head (Phil’s favorite fishing spot) https://www.ncaquariums.com/support-jennettes-pier; Iris Music Project (collaboratively designed music programming for retirement and health care communities) https://theirismusicproject.ddock.gives/; and American Cancer Society (major cancer research support) https://www.cancer.org