Robert Phillips

Professor Phillips was one of the best teachers I ever had. I always appreciated how he made time for every aspiring poet in the room, no matter how rough the poem. Everyone learned something from his critique of each poem and from every insight he shared.

I want to note that during his tenure at the University of Houston Bob was a real champion of students in the Creative Writing Program and a true friend. I also note that Bob's poetry is actually written with the notion of pleasing the reader in mind, something many writers seem to have forgotten. His work is full of warmth, humor and grace, and will be treasured for generations. We will miss our dear friend Robert Phillips.

Bob Phillips was a dear friend of mine for 45 years, an early mentor and promoter of my work as a poet. I was often a guest for dinner at his home in Katonah or for social gatherings after the readings he hosted at the Katonah Library. After I moved from Westchester County, NY, to Maine and he to Texas, we´d call and correspond regularly and meet occasionally over the years in Manhattan to attend the annual Poets´ Prize ceremonies, for which we were both judges. It was my habit to call him on...

Bob and I became instant friends upon our first meeting at a writer's conference in Clear Lake. We shared a sardonic attitude toward a lot of contemporary poetry and exchanged wonderful anecdotes about some of our more outré acquaintances in the creative writing business. Bob was known as a wonderful poet, of course, but he was also a natty dresser, a gentleman, and a devotee of some of the finer things in life. He will be missed.