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| Phil (left) loved this photo of him and our friend /colleague James |
"While we are going to move forward with artifact analysis and archival research we are going to have to be creative when it comes to logistics. My friend and co-worker, who I split responsibilities with at the Heritage Council, is very ill. He was to return at the end of August, but circumstances changed and he is out for at least the rest of the year. As a result, the flexibility I had in taking off weekdays is gone and my availability in general is limited.
He has been very supportive and interested in this project from the start though, so we will move forward so I can share some results with him the next time I see him."
From an email I sent to the JJAP Project Team in 2014
On Sunday, my friend, mentor, and archaeology colleague Phil died from brain cancer. The first time I met him was at the booktables during SEAC 2010 in Lexington. We were both staffing Kentucky book tables and spoke in general about our research.
He was finishing analysis and writing up his research on X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) and Instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) of materials from basalt quarries from American Samoa. He was a hard-working genius who mastered all of the physics, chemistry, lithic analytic techniques, statistics, AND anthropological theory it took to complete really interesting ground breaking research.
In 2010, I had just made the switch to bourbon research. I was vague and theoretical. He was clear, specific, and inspiring. We shared a common interest in public archaeology. I remembered this a few months later when I stood up in a room full of a hundred strangers and pitched an archaeology session for the Now What Lexington unconference. I closed with, "and Phil here is going to help me!" I'm not sure he liked being put on the spot, but he rolled with it. I didn't realize until later that he knew pretty much everyone in that room.
He ribbed me about that session a few times when I joined him at the Heritage Council later that year.
He worked hard to finish his dissertation work in 2013 and was making new plans. I heard him exploring everything from using XRF analysis on Kentucky rock art to returning to Samoa for a broader study of more quarries and perhaps different islands. See the January 23 posts on Whiskey Diggers for some LIDAR images of Tutilia that Phil and Carl were discussing.
Sometime between sharing the experience of becoming fathers, buying our first homes,and work I expressed frustration with the walls I kept hitting in my research. He pointed out how the theoretical paradigm I was comfortable with was actually not the best choice for the questions I was asking. Slapping me around and telling me "suck it up and get comfortable with political economy" is exactly what I needed. The next draft of my research proposal was the better for it.
Spare minutes between work projects were dedicated to banter, new developments in brain cancer research, and bouncing archaeology project ideas off one another. He was excited by the boundless potential of archaeology in Kentucky and would have been capable of tackling anything. His optimism, fearlessness, and creativity will continue to inform, motivate, and inspire me.
And I will miss him.
He was finishing analysis and writing up his research on X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) and Instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) of materials from basalt quarries from American Samoa. He was a hard-working genius who mastered all of the physics, chemistry, lithic analytic techniques, statistics, AND anthropological theory it took to complete really interesting ground breaking research.
In 2010, I had just made the switch to bourbon research. I was vague and theoretical. He was clear, specific, and inspiring. We shared a common interest in public archaeology. I remembered this a few months later when I stood up in a room full of a hundred strangers and pitched an archaeology session for the Now What Lexington unconference. I closed with, "and Phil here is going to help me!" I'm not sure he liked being put on the spot, but he rolled with it. I didn't realize until later that he knew pretty much everyone in that room.
He ribbed me about that session a few times when I joined him at the Heritage Council later that year.
He worked hard to finish his dissertation work in 2013 and was making new plans. I heard him exploring everything from using XRF analysis on Kentucky rock art to returning to Samoa for a broader study of more quarries and perhaps different islands. See the January 23 posts on Whiskey Diggers for some LIDAR images of Tutilia that Phil and Carl were discussing.
Sometime between sharing the experience of becoming fathers, buying our first homes,and work I expressed frustration with the walls I kept hitting in my research. He pointed out how the theoretical paradigm I was comfortable with was actually not the best choice for the questions I was asking. Slapping me around and telling me "suck it up and get comfortable with political economy" is exactly what I needed. The next draft of my research proposal was the better for it.
Spare minutes between work projects were dedicated to banter, new developments in brain cancer research, and bouncing archaeology project ideas off one another. He was excited by the boundless potential of archaeology in Kentucky and would have been capable of tackling anything. His optimism, fearlessness, and creativity will continue to inform, motivate, and inspire me.
And I will miss him.
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