Necrology
Philip Ira Weinberg '77
Aug. 20, 1955-Dec. 1, 2021
Philip Ira Weinberg ’77 died in Philadelphia on Dec. 1, 2021. Born on Aug. 20, 1955, and raised in Wyncote, Pa., he came to Hamilton from his hometown’s Cheltenham High School. On the Hill, he majored in political science and anthropology.
After graduation, Phil worked as assistant to the commissioner of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection for three years. In 1980, he began his legal education at the Boston University School of Law, earning his Juris Doctor in 1983. He joined the Boston law firm of Ravich, Aronson & Schulman that same year before returning to Philadelphia to join Sprague, Higgins, Creamer & Sprague in 1985. Along the way, he married Terry Eileen Silberg, a fellow Cheltenham High School graduate one year his junior.
In 1990, Phil became corporate counsel for Spectacor, later known as Comcast Spectacor. Over the course of his career, the company owned several major Philadelphia sports teams: the Flyers hockey team, the 76ers basketball team, and Philadelphia's minor league hockey team, the Phantoms. It also acquired the Philadelphia Wings of the National Lacrosse League and the Maine Mariners of the East Coast Hockey League.
Phil had a major accomplishment early in his tenure: successfully negotiating the trade of superstar NHL player Eric Lindros from the Quebec Nordiques in 1992. Lindros did not want to play as a rookie for Quebec and sat out the 1991-92 season. Phil participated in a six-day negotiation with Nordiques executives — who were also entertaining an offer from the New York Rangers — and won over Lindros, who had a stellar, 15-year career with the Flyers.
Demonstrating John Lennon’s observation that “life is what happens when you're busy making other plans,” Phil encountered some personal drama during the negotiations. The evening before his meetings with the Nordiques, his wife called, telling him that she was going into labor. Early the next morning, he flew from Montreal to Philadelphia to be with her and meet their daughter, Sydney, and caught a flight back to Canada that afternoon to finish the deal.
Three years later, and with no such drama, the couple had their second child, Zachery.
Over the course of his 31-year career at Comcast Spectacor, Phil was responsible for overseeing all litigation concerning employment and labor laws, business acquisition and development, financing, and player-related matters. He also supervised corporate communications and human resources.
As busy as Phil was professionally, he had a strong sense of social justice and engaged with a number of civic and charitable organizations, chief among them the Philadelphia Futures (PF). The program served low-income high school students who would become the first in their families to attend college with the goal of helping them prepare for higher education and academic success. Three Pennsylvania colleges officially partnered with PF: Gettysburg, Haverford, and Dickinson.
Phil chaired the board of PF in 2018. He also sat on the boards of Big Brothers Big Sisters Independence Region (i.e. greater Philadelphia), the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation, and Flyers Charities. For his philanthropic efforts, he received a leadership award in 2018 from the Philadelphia Inquirer Corporate Philanthropy Conference. Phil shared his vision for community service with the Inquirer: “What I think about is that we live in a global community. … We have the opportunity to give our good fortune so that all boats can rise.”
Phil was devoted to Hamilton as well. He donated regularly to the Hamilton Fund for more than 30 years and was a Joel Bristol Associate. He also served on the alumni recruiting team, identifying high school students he believed would succeed on the Hill. He joined the Alumni Council as Philadelphia regional chair and the 1812 Leadership Circle. Of his legacy to the College, President David Wippman wrote in an email, “he was a warm and generous person and will be greatly missed.”
Philip I. Weinberg is survived by his wife, daughter, and son.
