At one time Phil & I were good friends, this was during the 1970s through the early 1980s. We sold real estate together & had a few things in common. Especially a love of Jazz. We also enjoyed conversation one on one or good times with friends. Phil really knew how to create settings in which his acquaintances could relax & enjoy themselves & I was often among them. He was a very simpatico listener & articulate with thoughts. His outlook on life at that time was awareness of all the shades of joy & pain we all feel. I think Phil might have felt more deeply than most of us. Funny now though in retrospect, I never knew about the illness that ultimately consumed him. Usually when I saw him he maintained a good sense of humour.

We shared a close friend named Thurston Shook. Phil knew him as Wally. I knew him earlier as Satch. He was brilliant & hilarious. From a genteel English family in Upper Arlington he would come to my home in Grandview & we would tootle around in his MG sports car. Circa 1953 through 1959. He was my best friend & I learned a lot from him. Later after Phil became his good friend & arranged a reunion for us at Larry's Bar on High St. near campus, I met many other of Phil & Wally's friends that night. From there we went to Phil's place on Michigan Ave. & continued on until finally when I got home the birds were singing their morning chorus.---- I think that was the last time I saw Wally alive. He died much too young.------ Phil was the first to find him when it happened.----- It probably had a lingering effect on Phil for the rest of his life & worsened his condition. How long ago & yet I miss those two guys with a joy that I knew them & a regret that they are gone.

Al Reitter Jazzpocket@gmail.com