After 50 years practicing medicine, including 40 years as one of Sonoma County’s most respected radiologists, Dr. Harold “Harry” Edward Phillips passed away on May 26th, 2022, just shy of his 75th birthday. Dr. Phillips remained optimistic and loving as he battled a dual diagnosis of CLL and Hodgkin’s Lymphoma with his family by his side.

 

Known among his colleagues and patients for his vast medical expertise, gregarious demeanor, quick wit, and chronic cough, heard throughout whatever hallways he traversed, Dr. Phillips is one of those rare people who got to do what he loved.

 

Born in 1947 to Sarah “Sally” and Edward Phillips in Hackensack, New Jersey, Harry spent his youth in River Edge, NJ. As a kid, Harry loved to knock on the door of his neighbor, Mickey Mantle, and request that he sign a baseball, which Harry would immediately pawn to his friends for pocket money. Harry graduated from River Dell High School, where he excelled academically and was inducted into the school’s sports hall of fame as one the school’s last athletes to letter in three sports, having played varsity football, baseball, and basketball. He received a scholarship to Brown University in 1965, where he enjoyed the rigors of academia and playing shortstop and quarterback for Brown’s baseball and football teams. A 1969 graduate of Brown University, Harry, who was scouted as a shortstop by the Mets and the Red Sox, forwent a career in baseball. Instead, he followed the path of medicine, a choice his sports-fanatic father never quite got over. But this was the right choice, as nothing in this world compelled Dr. Phillips more than radiology. It was his truest passion, and one that played out over the course of his career in countless hours spent in continued study to advance his knowledge and skill as a physician.

 

Dr. Phillips attended medical school at University of Cincinnati. During medical school he and his friend, Peter, would “study” together at their favorite campus bar, the Lakewood. Over beers, Harry and Peter would forge a lifelong friendship that would see them through marriage, fatherhood, many discussions of complex radiology cases, and their respective misery over any Patriots or Giants losses. Living on separate coasts, they would keep up their friendship through daily chats.

 

The University of Cincinnati was also where Harry met his best friend and future wife, a nurse named Carol. Harry knew the first time he met Carol, at a house party, that she was the one for him. After mistaking a colleague for Carol’s mom, who was also a nurse at the University, Harry told that colleague that he was going to marry “her daughter”. This started a rumor, which would reach Carol’s mom, before they had even been on a single date. A day or so later, Harry, undeterred by the fact that Carol was in the middle of a shift, surrounded by coworkers, asked her out. Carol, who dislikes attention perhaps as much as Harry is unflappable, said yes immediately. Despite this, Carol knew on that first date that Harry was something special. They would marry a year after they first met, in 1972. Marriage and med school were followed by a residency at Boston City Hospital, where the pair welcomed their first daughter. Following a move to California for a teaching position at UC Davis Medical Center, the Phillips welcomed their second daughter. The couple’s third daughter arrived after moving to Santa Rosa, where Dr. Phillips joined Redwood Regional Medical Group.

 

Despite his time in Boston and 45 years as a Californian, Dr. Phillips remained a Jersey boy at heart. This was most evident when something irked him, as his normally undetectable Jersey accent would suddenly increase tenfold. But this was rare to see, as very little incurred any temper or discord. Dr. Phillips had three loves in life, his family, wine, and radiology, all else was mere noise.

 

Dr. Phillips sacrificed a significant amount of family time to serve his partners and the community, but managed to attend countless soccer and water polo games, recitals and performances. Always ready to spend vacations with his extended family, Harry cherished time spent over Skyline Chili, Graeter’s Ice Cream, or a nice rack of Texas ribs, especially if he could talk someone into a North Coast Old Rasputin Stout. He worked hard to provide a good life for his family, urged his children to give 110%, and adhered to an innate and clear moral code driven by fairness and equity. He had a great affinity for mathematics and physics, always seeking to improve his understanding of the physical universe. He was a strong writer who never wrote enough, had a sonorous singing voice and was an avid reader of the driest history books one could find. He was unfailingly generous when out for a meal with family and friends. His memory was something of incredible scope and he served as the family Google, well before Google existed.

 

Harry and Carol loved traveling together and exploring new places – whether it was a quick drive out to Bodega Bay or a faraway adventure on a different continent. They imparted this love of travel and exploration of places, food, and culture to their three daughters. But most of all, Harry and Carol demonstrated for their children a rare love and partnership marked by laughter and mutual support, with their respective strengths and weaknesses balancing each other out through life’s challenges. This fifty-year partnership established the framework for an incredibly tight, strong and affectionate family. A family that will be forever a bit less for this loss, but will remain strong, kind and greater than the sum of its parts, because of the man he was.

 

Harry will be missed, “until forever” by his loving wife, Carol Hunter Phillips, his three daughters Hunter, Meghan and Caitlin, sons-in-law Dave Koch-Weser and Joey Baba, grandchildren Helen and Cora, his sister, Sandra Akos, brother-in-law Jim and nephew Chris, the Hunter and Yarbrough in-laws, nieces and nephews, and any future progeny, who will sorely miss out on knowing the magical “PopPop”.

 

A celebration of life for family and friends will be held in early August.