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Who was Miles Phipps?
A Bright, Kind, Creative Kid
Miles Phipps was a 15-year-old whose presence was unmistakable—curious, gentle, endlessly kind, and deeply connected to the people around him.
Even if you never met him, you might still recognize him in the kid with a new hobby every week, the friend who loves something silly with their whole heart, or the neighbor who shows up quietly but fiercely for others.
A Life in Motion
Miles threw himself fully into the things he loved: skateboarding, biking, photography, guitar, concerts, animals, writing music with his guitar. Last July, he biked across Iowa with The Dream Team, completing RAGBRAI from river to river. His family remembers him playing guitar in the downtown Des Moines skywalks, where strangers filled his hat with money. In the months before his passing, he began recording and posting his music—one song reminding listeners, “Even when the world feels cold and rough, you got to know that you are enough.”
He also found joy in small, imaginative rituals. He loved the goofy charm of “worm on a string” toys, handing them out with one rule: Don’t open the package until you’ve chosen a name. Only then, he said, could the worm take its first breath.
That same instinctive kindness guided him everywhere he went, whether he was feeding stray cats or steadying a younger kid on a skateboard.
His Impact
Miles chose his own name after Miles Morales from Into the Spider-Verse—a reminder that anyone can wear the mask, and anyone can grow into who they truly are. He wanted to be someone who protected others, who moved with gentleness, who left people better than he found them.
And he did. Over and over again.
Remembrance asks us to hold onto the specific, wonderful pieces of a life: his love of the color orange, his nicknames for everything and everyone, his devotion to Shevee (his gray tabby), his legendary deviled eggs, his ability to find his way back to anything on wheels. These details say: he was here—in all his creativity, tenderness, and courage.