I got a call from Phil’s Sister, Carol, informing me that he died alone in his modest home in Tucson a few days earlier. Phil had on-going health challenges for years, and the cause of his death will probably never be known. Below is a photo of my 2 very best friends. Phil will be sorely missed.
We visited Phil many times and enjoyed him touring us around his beautifully maintained property. He took such pride integrating native plants into his landscape, with sensitively placed items from his “found objects” collection scattered throughout his property.
To keep his memory alive, I’ve poured through my notes and galleries and have linked to items of interest that portray Phil’s full, artistic life. Included are dispatches from past visits.
- 3/21/07 post: Phil Miller: Found Objects – https://tinyurl.com/2yynky73
- Miller’s “Found Objects” gallery – https://tinyurl.com/ykfp83pw
- 5/20/12 post: Phil Miller, Artist, Tucson https://tinyurl.com/r7jdxna2
- Miller’s “Busts & Butts” project – https://tinyurl.com/327ytray
- Phil’s impeccable landscape in Tucson – https://tinyurl.com/wemsant3
Here’s a precious 3-minute recording of Phil narrating his search for understanding. What a treasure hearing his voice.
Mary Jo, a dear friend and neighbor from our Arlington Apartment days in 1970’s Pasadena, wrote:
Dear Phil,
A lifetime has passed, but each time we drifted in and out of each other’s lives it was as if no time had passed since our last visit. I’ll always remember our young innocent days of laughter and shared experiences at Arlington. To this day when I make your brown rice and veggie casserole I think of you! As I take a sip from the beautiful wine goblets you made me I toast your creativeness. You were truly a gifted, gentle, wise soul. One of the special ones. You will be missed by many. Your old friend, Mary Jo.
She closed with an Irish saying, “Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal”.
I Remember When…
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- In 1965, Phil and I had one final hurdle in our desire to become members of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. All the pledges were parked outside a hall of some sort, in the pouring rain, waiting to be summoned for the BIG TEST of our worthiness. We sat on the spacious bench seat of his ’57 Ford station wagon, a surf buggy, tossing questions from our pledge manual back and forth while intermittently speculating—to the accompaniment of hysterical laughter—about how much of this ritual was bogus or for real. While our tenure with SAE was brief, we remained brothers forever. (Nick)
- In 1970 Phil and I were roommates in my parents’ house in La Cañada while they were traveling. There were actually 3 of us, since Fred, his dog, ate almost as much as we did. I was in my first year of teaching and enrolled in a adult ceramics class for fun. Phil joined me on occasion, enjoying getting his hands dirty working the wheel. Look what that led to! (Nick)
- I remember walking a trail in the Sonoran desert among the towering Saguaros with Nick and Phil. It was a warm morning under a clear blue desert sky and Phil reminded us to be on the lookout for rattlesnakes. He pointed his walking stick at where they might be coiled beneath a desert shrub. We walked along the sandy trail and suddenly Phil jumped with a shout and leaped behind me as a shield. A long thick rattlesnake crossed our path and soon disappeared under an expansive cholla. We all got a good laugh at how Phil could NOT be trusted as a He-Man protector—around snakes! (Sooney)