Michael Andrew Phillips

Michael Andrew Phillips
1932-2019 Michael was born in Seattle, Washington on March 18, 1932. He was one of three children of Helga and Herbert "Scoop" Phillips and was raised in Seattle. Michael married Lynne Wiegert in 1958 after which both Michael and Lynne completed their Bachelor's degrees in Chinese and Russian languages and literatures, respectively, at the University of Washington. Michael trained as a pressman, working in the printing industry, and later worked in publishing when he and Lynne moved to California where they had their first daughter Gillian Daisy in 1966.
At the end of the 60s, the family moved to Argenta, British Columbia to join the teaching staff of the Argenta Friends High School (Quaker boarding school). In 1969, their second daughter Holly Melissa was born on Christmas Day. Michael, Lynne, Gillian and Holly left Argenta in 1974. Lynne trained and worked as a teacher and administrator and Michael found his way into his professional life as an administrator in adult education.
The family settled in Trail, B.C. where Michael became the Director of Continuing Education for the Trail and District School Board and Selkirk College. He retired in 1995. After Lynne retired, the two moved to Victoria, B.C. to fulfil their dream of living by the ocean and being close to their faith community of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) as members of Victoria Monthly Meeting. Michael's faith, love of family, nature, passion for literature and music were all powerful forces in his life, and above all, his abiding love for his wife of 61 years. Michael's yearning for the divine was recorded in much of his life's writing including this passage, which he wrote a few years before his passing: "The mystery of the unity of all being must necessarily transcend the capacities of out little minds, Horatio. Show a little humility. The way open to us to know god is through our yearning, not through either our telescopes or our theology. And what is revealed to us there, while indubitable, is characteristically human, is the human perception of, and participation in, divinity. Each aspect, creation, element, cross-section, whatever, of reality yearns its way into being characteristically. All being, any being, is ultimate, but each being is characteristic of its kind, yearns in its own way. Frogs, stones, saints and stars, sing their particular praises of god, exactly as well as I do. There is no opening to the divine that is unworthy of it. Even my way is holy." Michael spent his last month of life in hospital where Lynne visited him nearly every day. In one of her last visits, bringing a friend with her, Michael greeted each of them by saying, "You're beautiful!"
Michael died peacefully of complications from Alzheimer's disease on Christmas Day 2019, with his loving wife Lynne, daughters Gillian and Holly, and son-in-law Steven around him. He is survived by these and also by a loving extended family: son-in-law David Lafayette (husband of Gillian); three grandchildren: Dwayne (married to Amanda and father of Demari), Thea and Zachary Lafayette; sister Jane Phillips and nieces and nephew Anais Bersie (her husband Dennis and children Erin and Darby) and Blye Phillips and Alex Phillips.
A Memorial Meeting will be held for Michael on February 22, 2020, 2 - 4 pm at the Victoria Friends Meeting House, 1831 Fern Street, Victoria BC. If you wish to honour Michael's memory with a donation to a cause that plagued Michael and some of his family by clicking on donations in the left menu.

Memorial Meeting