Issue Nº354 – In Memoriam

Rudy Phillips, who served as President of the Foundation for World Education for ten years, passed away from complications of colon cancer on November 26th. At his bedside was his partner, Tom O’Brien, and his two sons. He was 77 years old.

Rudy had also served on the Board of Matagiri Sri Aurobindo Center and was instrumental in creating an annuity for founders Sam Spanier and Eric Hughes and helping to transfer the property to the nonprofit organization which now owns the land and buildings.

Both a lawyer and chemical engineer by training, Rudy brought his corporate background and skill-set in service to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and Auroville and participated in numerous All USA Meetings. He served as President of Crompton and Knowles, a leading ingredient technology company.

He and Tom hosted many visitors from India in their New Jersey homes. For the past 16 years Rudy practiced massage therapy on Cape Cod where he and Tom had moved.

Rudy was an avid skier, painter, gardener and scuba diver. He was deeply committed to human and civil rights.

Tom commented on his partner’s passing, “In an early morning dream state I saw Rudy walking in the Elysian Fields of paradise surrounded by light and feeling very peaceful and blessed. He sent love and encouraged me not to worry. He will also live on in the hearts of all who loved him.”

On December 23rd, Peggy Ann Pfaff passed away in her daughter Lila’s home in Fraternity at the age of 91. Both Lila and her sister Laura, who had come over from the USA, were with her in the moment of transition.

Already from the seventies onward, Peggy used to come over from the USA to visit Lila which eventually resulted in her joining Auroville in 1997. Living in her house in Surrender, Peggy was unvaryingly present for her Matrimandir Chamber duty and worked with Krishna Tiwari at the Auroville Archives in Bharat Nivas, where she interviewed and recorded Aurovilians.

Coping with a severely arthritic constitution as well as other general health problems, it became clear in 2008 that she could no longer live alone and Peggy moved in with Lila in Fraternity. One of her delightful characteristics was her great sense of humour and her innate capacity to make people feel good, which carried her through till the end.

Peggy’s remains were buried in Auroville’s burial grounds on December 26th.

A short clip with Peggy talking about her life is available at goo.gl/3dSGhf

What struck me most about Krishna Kumar was his intensity: in dance, as singer in his band Temple Rock, and as a teacher of dance and Carnatic music. Many were the occasions where he shared his gifts with Auroville, as dancer – always together with his wife Gita, “his Goddess”, as he used to say – or as a choreographer, enthusing and pushing all who were on stage to go beyond what they thought they were able to do.

Paul Israel Berdah, better known as Paulo of Tanto, left his body at the age of 71 on December 2nd in a hospital in Paris where he had been treated for a cancer from which he suffered since early 2017.

Paulo, born in Tunis and of French nationality, was an accomplished dentist in France who used to travel in India during his holidays. On one of these trips in the early nineties he discovered Auroville, where André Hababou directed him to Auroville’s Dental Clinic. Upon meeting Jacques, an immediate bonding took place between the two dentists and since the mid-nineties Paulo came, along with his wife Claudine, almost every year to help his friend out in the Clinic. He also wholeheartedly plunged into Sri Aurobindo and Mother’s works, specifically into ‘Savitri’.

As soon as he was pensioned, Paulo and Claudine came over and moved into their house in Petite Ferme. In 2008, Paulo officially joined Auroville and while still working at Dental Clinic, gradually his attention shifted and he became involved in the very early stages of the setting up of Tanto Pizzeria, of which he was co-executive from the very onset. His gentle, easy going presence became the perfect counterpart of Tanto’s Daniel and the two of them worked along very well.

Many Aurovilians will know him from there. His pleasant demeanor and happy-go-lucky stance in life, combined with his singing of South American songs while accompanying himself on the guitar, endeared him to many. He will be acutely missed.

On the late evening of Saturday 1 December, Aurovilians came together at Matrimandir’s Banyan Tree, in a prayer for a peaceful transitioning toward the Light for this friendly, unassuming man.

Paulo’s remains were buried in Paris on December 4th.