Philip James Thomas

THOMAS _ Philip James. Pioneer Art Teacher and B.C.'s premier Folk Music Historian, born to Constance Jean (nee Drury) and Morris Williams Thomas, March 26, 1921, died peacefully at Vancouver General Hospital on January 26, 2007, two days after elective surgery. He was predeceased by his loving wife, Hilda Louise Thomas (November 2005) and older brother, Glen Drury Thomas. He is survived by his children: daughters, Theresa A Thomas, Halifax, NS and Mildred J Baines (Roger Scott), Williams Lake, BC. and son, Michael P Thomas (Kathy Major), Vancouver, BC; granddaughter, Nicole T MacDonald, Montreal, PQ; cousins Cynthia Hunter (Andrew) and Patrick Thomas (Patricia), sister-in-law, Kathleen Thode (Bob); nieces and nephews (John Halpin, Margot Hewitt, Blair Thomas, Karen Morse, Myra Joan Watson, Lorraine Paull, Stephen Thomas, Marsha Matheson, Bill Thomas, James Thode, Larry Thode, David Thomas, Vashti Azriel, Robin Macey); many cousins, grand nieces and nephews. Phil grew up with diverse interests ranging from singing to amateur ham radio [VE7PT]. During W.W.II he volunteered with the R.C.A.F., to employ his radio knowledge, and was assigned to the secret development of a new technology called Radar. After five years of service, in Europe and India, he returned from the war to earn his Bachelor of Arts degree and Teaching Certificate at the University of British Columbia. He was compelled to take a teaching job in Pender Harbour in 1949 after he was suspected by the Delta School Board of being a communist for his socialist views. At Pender Harbour he taught the children of fishermen and loggers in a small school and befriended B.C. author and fisherman Bill Sinclair who, with kindred social sentiment, inspired Phil to begin collecting the peoples' history of British Columbia as preserved in the wealth of folk song. Of himself, Phil would say, "Primarily, I am a teacher." In 1953, with young family in tow, he was hired by the Vancouver School Board and soon found himself with his own Art Room. He also taught Painting in the Park with the Vancouver School Board, Saturday Morning Children's Art classes for the Vancouver Art Gallery and ran the ground-breaking Child Art Centre at UBC's Acadia Camp for many years with fellow art teacher, John Dobereiner. A born teacher, with an amiable and engaging personality, Phil Thomas was one of B.C.'s most dedicated art teachers and life-long art education activists. More or less at odds with the current drift of theory and practice he honoured the child and how the child makes art. Children are born with an incredibly important potential to draw, paint, model in clay and, in the broadest sense, make art from whatever materials are available and whatever motivation seems urgently present. Daily involvement in art making activities is essential for their development and mental health. Phil's social activism came into play whenever he encountered the belief that art for children is a frill, a hobby, a way of keeping them amused. He recognized this and did everything in his power to bring authentic art to the lives of the thousands of children who were lucky enough to come into his energizing sphere of influence. He was awarded the G.A. Ferguson Prize, the highest honour the B.C. Teachers Federation can award, for creative work in art and drama and was an Honorary Life Member of the B.C. Art Teachers Association. Thomas was also an inveterate collector of folk music and books on the same subject. While the primary source for the songs that Phil collected was the people of British Columbia, he also travelled Western Canada and used the Howay-Reid Collection at U.B.C. Library to discover some of the very early songs sung in this province and Canada. Many of these materials are now available at the B.C. Provincial Archive. In 1993, his home plugged solid with music library materials, he generously decided to donate his entire collection of over 2,500 books to the University of British Columbia Library for public use. Since then, Thomas has continued to scout and acquire new and rare materials. The Philip J. Thomas Popular Song Collection, of which he was Honourary Library Associate, is located at U.B.C. Library Rare Books and Special Collections, now numbers over 7,700 books and manuscripts and is catalogued on the WWW. The Collection includes items published since 1719 and reaches into many aspects of Western popular culture through the centuries. Phil's own publications are present, including Cariboo Wagon Road, 1858-1868, Songs of the Pacific Northwest, and Twenty-five songs for Vancouver 1886-1986. The Collection contains a wealth of material useful in the analysis of the incidence and significance of 'popular' song, as in 'of the people', in Canadian society. In 1959, along with wife, Hilda, and Albert and Jeannie Cox, Phil founded and eventually became Honourary Life Member of the Vancouver Folk Song Circle, later to become the Vancouver Folk Song Society, the longest running folk club in Canada. This bi-monthly amateur stage became the place where many of the songs Phil collected were first heard and later adopted by all. To the end, Phil was an active and longstanding member of the British Columbia Folklore Society and was Honourary President and Life Member of the Canadian Society for Traditional Music. Two of the many recognitions Phil received for his work in preserving folk music in Canada were the Heritage Society of British Columbia's Outstanding Award for Personal Achievement in 1996 and the Marius Barbeau Medal for Folklorists and Performers from the Association canadienne d'ethnologie et de folklore/Folklore Studies Association of Canada in 2003. In 2006 Hancock House Ltd published Songs of the Pacific Northwest in its second revised and expanded edition. The songs Phil collected portray a frontier society and the trials of people making a living in a wild and difficult physical setting. The Bold Northwestman, describes an incident of dubious conduct by Boston maritime fur traders, in relation to native people, which occurred on the B.C. coast in 1791. Other songs sing of the hard life of miners, lumber workers and fishermen. From: Know Ye the Land, a song of the Cariboo gold rush dated 1865: It is here that the Almighty Dollar is rated A god in this Anglo-American land Where the greatest of blackguards if lucky is feted, While the poor man, though honest, may starve and be damned. The work of extracting the resources from the land features in many songs including The Greenchain Song, about sawmilling: Now, the pond men think they're Bunyans, and the scaler thinks he's God, And the sawyer thinks that each of them's a lazy, useless sod. But if the truth were ever looked for in the lies that pour like rain, You would find out that the heroes are the workers on the chain. Three CD's which feature Phil and his Collection are: Where the Fraser River Flows and other Songs of the Pacific Northwest; The Young Man from Canada B.C. Songs from the P.J. Thomas Collection; and Phil Thomas and Friends Live at Folklife Expo 86. The family would like to express their deepest gratitude to the Doctors and Staff of the Vancouver General Intensive Care Unit. Memorial plans to be announced by Vancouver Crematorium after February 12th 604-325-8251. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, 131 Bloor Street West, Suite 200/238, Toronto, ON M5S 1R8 or the charity of your choice.