Harry Gordon "Buddy" Felio

HARRY GORDON "BUDDY" FELIO- One of the few living links to the eighteenth century, princely India, and Fitzgerald's Paris passed quietly last Friday, May 27th, 2005. Harry Gordon Felio was born in 1937 in Hollywood, California while his mother, Ailene Pritchard Felio, was en route to join her engineer husband, Harold "Bus" Felio, in India and China during troubled times in the world. Unperturbed by the Japanese approach through China and Burma, his father built aircraft factories for India and fighter aircraft factories for Chiang Kai-Chek during the war. As a child, he lived through the difficult times in India until Independence in 1947. He lived the first 32 years of his life in India in New Delhi, Cochin, and Bangalore. His emerging persona and education more closely resembled those eighteenth and nineteenth century elegant colonials that long ago lived privileged, cultivated lives. His friends included many of India's Princely families including the Jaipurs, Indores, Patialas, and Rompoors. Whether he was recounting a gothic tale of a cursed room in a dark Indian palace or a relating a trip on the Nawab's private train to meet Buddy's ship leaving India for school in Europe, he never failed to enthrall and subtlety instruct his listener on the finer points of a civilized life. Resembling more a yet to be released Merchant and Ivory film, Buddy's life included events so interesting and improbable that some simply dismissed his history as embroidered. It would seem beyond the improbable to have led a life that included a private tour of Sutton by Paul Getty, who had just acquired a contested Titian; and to have completed work on "What's New Pussy Cat" with Peter O'Toole, Woody Allen, and Peter Sellers shortly thereafter. It is of no small insight that Buddy, who shared the same make-up man as served Elizabeth Taylor in Paris filming the completion of "The Sandpiper", was proud to tell you that he was told he had the only other eyes and lashes seen that so resembled hers. Buddy was, from an early age, a precocious student of great lives and of his time. He spent many years in Paris studying at the Sorbonne from the age of 19 until his departure from his beloved city in his early 30's. Buddy obtained a flawless command of the French language and of the varied ways that amused the Café Society of his time. Later phases of his life sound equally improbable and include running a large paper mill in upstate New York, the Grand Hotel Olufson in Port au Prince, Haiti (which inspired Graham Greene's story), and Lord Glenconnor's private island guest house on Mustique. The many details of Buddy's life are generally just informative, but it was his wit, rapacious appetite for all that was elegant and timeless, and his uncanny ability to sift through encyclopedic historical information and current events of his life to weave a tale that would link the subject of conversation to a heretofore unrecognized chain of historical links. Resembling the generously figured actor Sydney Greenstreet, Buddy was a classic example that it was better to not judge a book by its cover. Those that were perceptive enough to enter his sphere came away with far more than stories--they were left with a larger view of the world than given them by their own experience. His self appointed purpose in life was to bridge the past and the present world, dispel the myth that mediocrity is acceptable, and embed gentlemanly principles in those he chose to adopt. For those that called him close friend or family, we are diminished by his passing and will always treasure the unique aspects of our lives that he influenced so greatly. He loved as he lived with only the limits that the physical world could place on him. He was otherwise completely unique, timeless, and precious. He remains so. Besides his many dear friends, Buddy is survived by his sister, Nancy Burns and husband John; niece, Kellie; nephews Christopher and Patrick, and longtime friends Steven Hamilton and Tom LeCloux. Friends are cordially invited to a memorial service celebrating Buddy's life on Saturday afternoon, June 11th, 2005 at two o'clock at the Bradshaw-Carter Home, 1734 West Alabama Street, Houston. A reception will follow. For those desiring, in lieu of flowers, the family request donations in Buddy's memory to your favorite charity. Online tributes may be posted at: www.bradshawcarter.com.