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Emily T. Phillips
Emily T. Phillips
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Emily Phillips Obituary
It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of our dearly beloved. Emily/T(h)eresa was bountiful of and generous in encouraging the best that life could offer. She was tireless in pursuing her curiosities and ever committed to realizing all that which may appear to be impossible. Her enthusiasm, optimism and sheer joy for life was irresistible. Artist, arts educator, and singer, Emily/T(h)eresa shared her boundless energies with her family, friends, fellow artists and educators and students. Her infectious love for life will be sorely missed.
She was predeceased by her parents, Burton and Emily Phillips and a brother, Barry Phillips. Emily/T(h)eresa leaves behind three brothers: Wayne, Stephen (Sharri), Thomas (MiSun); a sister, Maria (Franc); numerous cousins, nieces, nephews, valued colleagues, fellow artists, and many cherished students. We are all the better for having had her in our lives. She left an indelible imprint.
A memorial service will be held in May to honor Emily/T(h)eresa. Please post your email address on this site to be contacted with details about the service.
To plant trees in her memory, please visit A Living Tribute: https://shop.alivingtribute.org.
To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.
Marilyn Zoller Koral
April 11, 2025
I was fortunate enough to have Emily enter my life, however briefly, when we worked together for just one semester last year in arts education. Emily was so open, friendly and giving to me, I would not have done my job as well without her. Emily had that spark, she lit up a room. She was surely a very, very special person and will be sorely missed by all those she touched.
Olive Lipkin
March 10, 2025
My partner and I were lucky enough to have Emily as our neighbor, starting in 2024. She was such a joy. Every time we passed by each other, we stopped to chat and it always filled my heart. She always brought so much light in. On sunny evenings I could hear her singing opera as her voice drifted through the open windows. I am so sorry to hear of her passing. She will be so dearly missed.
Anne Midgette
March 7, 2025
I am in shock to read this news. I met Emily in 1993 when we were both living in Germany. Our friendship has played out over two continents (this picture shows us on the Y2K New Year's Eve in New York) and carried us through singing and art and several planned collaborations (we spent months plotting out a staging of Verdi's opera "Macbeth," with her sets and my direction, but alas never brought it to fruition). Most recently she and I spent a long time with me interviewing her at great length about her oldest brother, since I thought it was an amazing story and would make a great magazine piece - I was working on the draft, but she never got to see it. If her family sees this, please contact me because I still think it's a great idea, and also because I have long transcripts of her memories and thoughts as a result of this project. Emily was a loving, warm, smart, creative force and a dear friend, and I will miss her bitterly. Please let me know details of her memorial.
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Elizabeth Medrano
March 6, 2025
Emily´s mural installation at Southern Exposure Gallery
Juanita Ann Price
March 1, 2025
Emily, Emily...you made every adventure we took exciting. Every mundane walk fun. You showed me how to live life fully no matter what comes your way.
Dear friend you are missed but thoughts of memories we shared make me smile and sometimes laugh.
Frances Valesco
February 26, 2025
Emily was a student in my SFSU Curriculum and Instruction Seminar in the Spring of 2024. She was so bright, poised, eloquent, and elegant. We had many deep conversations about our shared love of travel, about living in another country, and her aspirations for her work. I felt an immediate kinship with her and wished we both had enough "down" time to spend in more conversation outside of class. I spoke to her on the phone several times in the following months. She expressed how much she wanted to continue the work that she was doing. I always came away appreciating her warm heart and thoughtful words. I was hoping for the best in her diagnosis and was saddened by the news she was gone. She left the world a better place for being in it, and she touched my heart as she did so many others.
Vera Parlac
February 25, 2025
This is Emily in December 2023 singing at the concert streamed over internet.
I met Emily at UCLA in the early 90's when I enrolled in a set design class. We became fast friends. Emily, Gretchen and I were inseparable trio for a year and a half. We discussed books, art, theater, life. Those conversations left a deep imprint on all three of us. Then our path diverged. I moved away. Gretchen moved away ... We occasionally reconnected over the years but in the past two years three of us continued our intense conversations over Zoom. Emily was planning to visit me in New York when her treatment is over. I am so overwhelmed and sad to hear of her passing. She was so full of life last time we talked. It seemed like nothing could stop her.
Emily, we lost you too soon. I will keep your memory always in my heart.
Courtney Selan
February 22, 2025
So much Joy and Inspiration. That is all I keep thinking. You are SO missed.
Emily Aldama
February 21, 2025
I have worked with Emily at the school district, and as her supervisor, but I will say I did very little "supervising" as Emily was an incredible educator, and morally motivated to enhance students' school experience through arts and their connections with themselves as complex and valued young people. She was prolific thinker, had a systems mind and honestly and truly loved people, kids and humanity. I was encouraging her to get her admin credential and she was moving in that direction. I would have loved 10 more years of her leadership, but I guess God needed a spirited opera singer angel and called her home. She taught me more in these last 10 years than I can actually quantify. Every time I talked with her, she always surprised me with some new skill or secret about her life. I always tried to be my authentic self and make her laugh, because she had that incredible laugh that filled the room...and then she would put her hand over her mouth and say, "I'm sorry, what?!" Her presence is missed, and still felt daily. Here are some photos of an interdisciplinary workshop that Emily planned that we attended on Wednesday. Thoughtful and intentional learning and joy together. Taking that spirit with me for sure.
Virginia Maksymowicz
February 20, 2025
Wow, what fabulous photos!
I met Emily when she was my sculpture student at Wayne State University in 1981-82. The two of us came from "good, Catholic families" and we became fast friends.
We both lived in NYC during the rest of the eighties and were both involved in the artworld. We collaborated on a sculptural installation for Art Against Apartheid, and we also worked as office temps in the financial district. We traveled to Europe together and made sure to see each other no matter what part of the world we found ourselves in. After she moved back to the States from Germany, she lived with my husband, Blaise, and me for almost a year in Philadelphia. We will miss her so much. We could talk to her about anything. She was such a loving, kind, thoughtful person . . . and just plain fun. What a great sense of humor!!
The photo I'm attaching is from a trip to Florence (can't remember the year but a long time ago). We were standing on a bridge over the Arno, and Blaise took the photo.
Susie McCreight (Susan Hahn)
February 19, 2025
Teresa and her brothers and sisters lived across the street from my family in Detroit City. We were childhood friends. Even back then I saw early signs of the person she was destined to become. What made her intelligence and artistry so unique is that it was combined with a FORCEFUL WILL: a resistance she threw up against taking the world just as she found it. That´s what artists do. I see that in her sister, Maria, too. The Philipps sisters: Their terrible refusal to take the world as is, can make life difficult for them; but their insistence on remaking it has left it a much better place for the rest of us. Love you forever, Teresa! I will never forget you.
Bissa Zamboldi
February 19, 2025
Emily radiated joy and pushed us to live our lives to the fullest. Thank you to her family for sharing her with us. Thank you to Emily for being a great light & inspiration in my life. Please send me information on the memorial.
Liz McAvoy
February 19, 2025
Though it turns out that we collaborated on a website many years ago, I only got to chat with Emily once, at an in-person art department meeting at the beginning of this school year. During the teacher-led meeting, our colleague spoke to us primarily in Spanish in order to demonstrate how to engage learners who do not necessarily speak the main language spoken in class. Emily smiled and said that she didn't know any Spanish, but that she could speak German fluently. This piqued my interest. Why German, I asked. She then told me a bit of her story, and it was one of those times that I thought, I want to know this person better. I began to look for Emily at other meetings, hoping for a chance to sit next to her and continue getting to know her. It is clear from others' words that everyone who got at least one chat with Emily looked forward to more. I will cherish the time, however brief, that I got to be a part of Emily's life.
Richard Moore
February 18, 2025
What a loss; great artist, teacher, and friend! Wow, we were just getting going. Hope all you family and friends embrace the grief and find comfort in her memory. So it goes.
Richard Lamar Moore
February 18, 2025
Love you Emily, you brought the JOY! You, Juanita, and I were really just getting started, miss you. Peace to you and your family and friends! Dang it all!!!
Vilma Ramirez
February 18, 2025
I was one of Ms. Phillips´ students for my freshman and sophomore year of high school, and to say I´m devastated is an understatement. I don´t think I can ever find a teacher like Ms. Phillips again, someone I can say I had a truly close bond with. She always had me do extra things to help out, always encouraged me to keep making art, and always made me feel truly special. The same can be said for so many more of her students, with just how much compassion she had for not only creating, but also teaching art. My heart goes out to all of Ms. Phillips´ family members and friends, as with how much she´s impacted my life in the few years I´ve known her, I simply cannot fathom how much it impacts those who´ve known them for so much longer.
Laney Corda
February 18, 2025
I was lucky enough to work with Emily at James Lick for a while, and then was able to learn from her as we worked for a summer at Aim High. When things were particularly difficult, Emily reminded me many times to hold my head up high and keep going. She made me feel seen and loved, and reminded me to see and love myself. Emily - I will keep your memory always in my heart.
taylor macias
February 18, 2025
I only met Emily a few times at art department professional developments, but it always felt like a treat to get a moment with her because her presence was just so pleasant. I knew that she had
formidable life experience from a few things she humbly shared just to introduce herself, I knew she was worldly, and she never made me feel like I was less than, or that she wasn't interested in what I had to share. It seemed obvious to me that she had been absorbing and responding to the enthusiastic, curious, ambitious little spirits of the children she taught for so many years because of the way she emanated openness and how invested she was in listening. Im grateful for what opportunities I had to meet her and learn from her.
Susan Skarsgard
February 18, 2025
Sending love to your entire family. I´m so sorry for this profound loss of your dear sister.
Holding her memory in my thoughts...
Katie Kennecy
February 18, 2025
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