NJ pilot killed in plane crash loved ‘God, family and work’

A New Jersey man killed in a small plane crash this week was an accomplished business executive and avid outdoorsman who had held a pilot's license since his teens, his daughter said Friday.

Philip Clements' true passion, however, may have been his religious faith, Cindy Krantz said. It led him to pursue a master's degree in theological studies at a school in North Carolina, which he would attend during the week and drive home to New Jersey on the weekends.

"It was God, family and work," Krantz said. "He was the kind of man who would do anything for his family."

Clements' body was found Thursday near Somerset Airport. The 62-year-old's plane took off from the airport Tuesday, but a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman said it wasn't reported missing until Thursday. A cause for the crash hasn't yet been determined.

Krantz said her father first earned a pilot's license at 16 and loved to take family members up in his plane, an amphibious craft that could land on water or runway.

Just last month he had flown Krantz, who was six-months pregnant at the time, from New Jersey to her home in West Virginia.

"When he heard I was flying commercially and had to do a stopover he said, 'Nonsense, I'll take you myself,'" she said.

Clements, of Chester Township, owned a business consulting firm with offices in the U.S. and Holland, according to his LinkedIn.com profile, and previously was an executive at PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Standard & Poor's.

Clements grew up in the Puget Sound area of Washington state and attended college and law school there. He met his wife, Julie, in New York where they lived for 15 years before they moved to western New Jersey in 1991, Krantz said. The couple has two other daughters.

Viewings were scheduled for Monday and Tuesday at the Higgins Home for Funerals in Watchung. A funeral will be held Wednesday at Grace Bible Chapel in Chester.

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