Phil

Then a name surfaced — Phil Pendry — along with a few glimpses of his life story.

Then I met Phil Pendry. And then I understood the question. And I knew the answer.

Phil Pendry spent more than eighty years of his life as a cameraman, a documentary filmmaker, and a storyteller. 
Not in words — in images.

Phil didn't boast about the stories from more than forty crises, his friendship with Yoko Ono, his work for CBC and 60 Minutes. Phil told stories when you asked him to.

I came to know and appreciate Phil first and foremost as a remarkable humanist. Phil was a man who cared. A quietly dignified man with grace and manners.

I only learned a fraction of his many stories from war and hardship. Phil could easily have become a cynic.

But he didn't. I experienced Phil Pendry as a friend — as a person who carried not a single millimetre of cynicism within him.

Yesterday, Phil Pendry passed away gently and peacefully. Exactly as he had lived.

Thank you for your friendship and your quiet, powerful presence, Phil.