Philip C. Tower (1945-2018)

The class has received news of Phil's death January 28, 2018. The cause of death was brain cancer, apparently induced by melanoma.

 

Friends and family held a luncheon to commemorate Phil and their fond memories of him in March 2018 in his beloved Prescott, AZ.

 

 

Phil's PAW Memorial:

A life-long resident of the Phoenix area, Phil graduated from Phoenix Central High, where he was a member of the student senate and ran track.

 

At Princeton he majored in history, ate at Tower Club, participated in freshman and varsity crew, belonged to Whig-Clio, and worked in the thesis-binding agency and the infirmary.

 

After Princeton Phil earned a law degree from the University of Arizona. He then served three years as a Marine Judge Advocate Officer, including a tour of duty in Vietnam.

 

Honorably discharged, he entered private law practice in Phoenix. From 1991 to 2001 he served as president of his own staffing company, while also serving as general counsel of International Conference Resorts. In 2002 he returned to private law practice.

 

Phil served on the board of the Presbyterian Service Agency and was a founding board member of the Phoenix Central High Alumni Association.

 

The class extends its condolences to Phil’s sister, Betsy Tower Willcuts, and the rest of his family.

More About Phil

If you have memories or photos of Phil that you would like to share on this page, please send them to 66_CommTeam@tiger1966.org.

 

Scans from the Nassau Herald, 25th Reunion Book, and 50th Reunion Book below are followed by more about Phil's life and career and tributes from friends and classmates:

 

After graduating from Princeton, Phil attended the Arizona State University School of Law. He practiced law in Arizona for over 40 years. Specialties: Bankruptcy, General Business Law, Civil and Criminal Litigation; Family Law. Click here to see his profile published by his then-employer, the Meyer Hendricks & Bivens law firm, in the mid 2000s.

 

Toward the end of his life, Phil was in a firm called TowerBrand with a partner, Gervais Brand, who writes of Phil as follows:

 

"All of us who were lucky enough to know Phil in elementary school, high school, college, or graduate school, or all of the above, will always cherish the memory of his incredible sense of humor and consuming laugh. We all enjoyed talking about politics with him and I am sure the events of today would produce interesting discussions and observations because he majored in Russian History at Princeton as I recall. He had an incredible intellect and excelled in Law School at the University of Arizona, and he had an interesting history in the practice of law with associations with some great firms in Arizona. You may not know that he served in Vietnam as a Captain in the JAG Corps and had interesting stories about Saigon during the War. He is survived by his sister, Betsy Willcuts, of Lafayette, CA and his step-son who I know will continue to miss him dearly. I don't recall his name but he lives in NY or Mass., and his mother, Phil's ex, is Sherry Bostrum Tower who I believe resides in Mass. Whenever we gather for reunions rest assured we will raise a glass to the joy and pleasure it was to know our friend, Phil Tower and to how we miss him.

Classmate Tributes

Warren Browne.

I don’t have much to offer and it’s a little fuzzy anyway, but I happened to talk with Phil about six years ago. He was living in Phoenix and visiting his sister in, I believe, Lafayette.  He told me that he had just married a young (like in her twenties) Russian woman with a toddler. He said that she didn’t speak English and was trying to adjust to American life. If Phil has since died, I hope she has somehow been provided for.

 

Phil and I were friends during our four years at Princeton and roommates in the last two. We subsequently got together maybe two or three times but didn’t stay much in touch. I know that he joined the marines after Princeton and then went to law school and became a practicing attorney. As I recall, he at one time, before the legal forms business went online, contemplated offering legal forms as a business. I never heard how that venture worked out.

 

Our roommates were Chas Dewey and Lamar Smith in senior year and John Brunner in junior year. Phil’s roommate freshman year was Bob Moya. I don’t recall his rooming situation for his sophomore year.

 

Bill Mitchell.

It was with great sadness that I learned of Phil Tower’s passing. Phil and I go back a long way; we both grew up in Phoenix, and though we never went to school together, we knew each other through various activities and mutual friends. We, along with John Theobald (who tragically passed away of lung cancer almost 30 years ago), were heavily recruited to Princeton by Rob McCampbell (class of ‘??). I well remember the ride in from Princeton Junction on the PJ&B and seeing Princeton for the first time, we all had the “Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore” moment. In those days, you were assigned roommates for your freshman year, but Phil and I (and 6 others) roomed together in Holder Tower sophomore year in a suite not inappropriately called “The Zoo.” Phil and I became good friends at that time, both joined Tower Club during Bicker, and where Phil invited a lovely young lady, Shari Bostrom, back for HouseParties. It was clear he was smitten from the start, and therein began a path that ultimately led to their marriage and life together.
 
Upon graduation, Phil went to the University of Arizona Law School, and after successfully passing the bar exams, he joined Judge Advocate General’s Corps (JAG). He was sent to Vietnam, served with distinction, but it was obviously a difficult time in his (and our country’s) life. He would never open up to me about what had occurred there, and I never really pressed him on it, though I suspect that he suffered from what we would now call PTSD, though that term nor any treatment for it were known at that time.
 
After he returned from the war, he joined one of the premier law firms in Arizona (whose name I can’t remember) and had a fine career with them, ultimately leaving to form his own firm, where he was known for his great service and ability to get difficult things done.  He and Shari also married; they never had children, though she had a son by a previous marriage and Phil adopted him as his own.
 
During this period, my parents were living in Scottsdale, and so my wife Jan and I would take our kids down to Phoenix on a regular basis to see the grands (always a great fun time) and we often got together with Phil and Shari for drinks or dinner and enjoyed catching up. Phil was always quiet about his own achievements, but he was a keen observer of Arizona politics and Arizona life in general. Phoenix was growing by leaps and bounds and it was great fun to get his insights into what was really going on. My parents subsequently passed 20+ years ago, and we stopped visiting Phoenix as we followed the arc of our kids’ lives and our own friends and family here in the Bay Area. We exchanged holiday cards for a number of years, but that too drifted away and Phil and I lost contact with one another 15+ years ago  I thought of Phil from time to time, wondered how he was doing, but never got around to reconnecting with him. That’s a story that’s told all too often, and a lesson for us all – maintain your roots.
 
And so I was greatly saddened to hear of his passing. Phil was a fine person, a good friend, and I hope that he found the happiness and fulfillment that he so richly deserved. May he rest in peace.