Phillip Fenton Myers

Phillip F. Myers was born in the depression era 1935 in Cleveland, Ohio. He was the youngest of 7 children, 6 of which were boys. If he wanted to get enough to eat, he would have to elbow out his older brothers first. He went to Cleveland Heights High School where he excelled in academics and athletics, especially track and cross country. At a high school of 2000 students, by his senior year he was the number one miler and half-miler. He tied with 2 other students at his school for the most varsity letters his senior year. He was proud to run in the state track meet in Ohio Stadium, the hallowed grounds of Jesse Owens.

In the fall of 1953, he enrolled in a 5 year program that would yield a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from The Ohio State University. He attributed pledging Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity for giving him polish. He was also one of 16 in his class to make Sphinx Senior Men’s honorary.

After being in ROTC in college, he followed 4 of his brothers into the U.S. military. He was commissioned as Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force upon graduation in 1958. He was active duty for 2.5 years stationed at Wright Patterson Air Force base in Cincinnati, Ohio as an Engineering Officer. With Top Secret clearance, he did war planning and operations analysis, while holding down the positions of Division Security Officer and Top Secret Control Officer. While on active duty, he also obtained a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Ohio State. He rose to Captain and stayed in the reserves until he was honorably discharged in 1967.

In September 1960, he was in New York working as a Management Consultant where he got set up on a blind date with a lady by the name of Hope Strum that was arranged by his aunt. They hit it off and as luck would have it, they both ended up going to school in Boston. They got married on August 13, 1961, making this past Friday their 60th wedding anniversary.

He wanted to get married, so he could put that topic to rest before he started his Doctorate in Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. Receiving three consecutive Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowships helped him to get through. He finally completed his degree in April 1966 to high praise. When he was done, the young married couple moved to Los Angeles, California where their two children Clifford and Melissa were born. They stayed out there 28 years until it was decided to move back to Ohio and then finally to Florida to retire.

Phil had such a diverse career, it is hard to keep count of everything he did. He was always entrepreneurial and ahead of his time in his business ventures, sometimes by decades. For example, he had the work from home thing down pat in the 1980s. He started ventures like a water purifier business in the 70’s, a gold mining company in the 80’s, and was trying to develop hybrid electric cars in the early 90’s. Examples of some of his jobs were Steel Mill Laborer, Jet Engine Inspector, Management Consultant, Systems Analyst, Strategic Planner, Chief Corporate Economist, CEO, CFO, Engineering Manager, Public Safety Commissioner, and Chairman of several boards. He was a professor at the business schools of both University of Southern California and Pepperdine University in L.A., as well as Franklin University later in Ohio.

Phil’s interests were also extensive. He listened in his lifetime to over 30,000 hours of classical music including live orchestras, philharmonics, and symphonies from L.A. to Leningrad. He traveled to over 70 countries in his lifetime and has visited many of the most notable museums in the world. As a family, much of the U.S. was traveled with a motorhome and a boat. At the age of 48, he started Tae Kwon Do and eventually rose to just under black belt while being held to the same standards as the other students who were half his age. He’s literally a diehard Ohio State Buckeye football fan. He is buried in Ohio State gear as if he were about to go to a tailgate. It would be tough to find a bigger expert on World War II. He has probably seen or read the majority of books, movies, tv shows, and even magazines ever made on the subject. His love of food was the glue that bound his marriage for 60 years, as his wife was a big cooker and he was a big eater. He flew to Paris one time from Switzerland just so he could eat at some Michelin star restaurants. He loved to entertain and throw parties. The house was always full of love and cats. He was a devoted father who was much more present than most and would support his children in whatever their interests were.

He will always be loved and be missed deeply by his surviving family Hope, Cliff, and Melissa.