By John Murphy
Opening Facebook today, I see April 5 was Phil Monaghan’s birthday.
Phil died tragically five years ago, and I attended his memorial service in San Bruno. Many of my old St. Robert’s School classmates were there.
So, a few quick notes about him before I move along …
–Phil, or “Peppy” as he was sometimes called, was one of my first friends in grade school. He was energetic and animated, a fun kid to be around.
–He was from a huge Irish-Catholic family that lived on a big corner lot a few blocks from us. HIs obit says he had 12 siblings. Whew. I didn’t know it was that many.
–By comparison there were “only” four Murphy kids. When Phil casually mentioned at our dinner table that he had never been to a San Francisco Giants game, my dad took him to one. He never forgot that.
–Phil would sleep walk as a kid. I think it was a Saturday night, as his older siblings watched “12 O’Clock High,” that Phil climbed the staircase from his bedroom, ambled past his sibs and walked out the front door … while asleep! He was found on a front porch a few blocks away, crying his eyes out and still in his pajamas.
Dude was also whip-smart. He attended St. Ignatius College Prep in San Francisco, then graduated from college and became a civil engineer. He was already retired from the city of Burlingame when he passed.
Phil Monaghan, he’d be 64 today. Happy birthday, buddy.
Main Street Dog 