As long as there is an Eclectic Company,
there will be a place somewhere in it for Phil
Muro.
We lost Phil to ALS on 3 January 1997, about seven weeks before he
would have turned 33.
He made us laugh, he made us cry, he made us think, he made us feel...and
most of all, he made us react. He loved fiercely and he hated fiercely.
He hated hypocrisy and people telling him what to do. He loved the Yankees,
Howard Stern, skiing, Beavis & Butt-head, his friends, his young
nephew Thomas, and most of all, his "pop"--the man who had been both mom
and dad to him since amyotrophic lateral sclerosis had claimed his mother's
life in 1967. (Click here to read what Phil wrote
after his father's passing in 1995.)
He bit into life as if it had been a peach--and even during the times
when all he could reach was the pit, he still managed to find the humour
within. Only Phil could have written witty, scathing parodies about the
disease which was robbing him of the use of his muscles...and only Phil
would have "saluted" the namesake of Lou Gehrig's Disease with a bit called
"Pride of the Spankees!"
Phil--producer, engineer, writer, artist, musician, comedian, and thinker--called
his production company Non-Stop Productions. That's how he worked, and
that's how he lived.
One of the things which worried Phil most was that he would be remembered
only for the manner of his passing, not for his contributions during his
short but vivid life. We--his ProMedia friends and colleagues Frank Guida,
Mike Pollock, and Anita Bonita, plus his devoted friend and nurse Ginny
Hamilton--promised him that would not happen, and we thank you for helping
us keep our word.
*This was written by Phil in September, 1996--and
e-mailed the day before he was hospitalized
for the last time. It is very difficult reading,
but it was important to him that people understand
"his world," and so it's important to us
that we give him the stage from which to present it.
To find out more about ALS, point your browser to www.alsa.org,
the website of the ALS Association..
Return to The Eclectic Company Main Page.