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Philo Dorr Atwood, Jr.

Philo Dorr Atwood, Jr., age 83, of Wilmington, Delaware, passed away on Thursday, May 19, 2022 at Season’s Hospice in Christiana Hospital, Newark, Delaware.

Philo was born in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania, son of the late Philo Dorr and Jane Busch Atwood. He was active with the Devereux Foundation from 1951 to 1976 and remained a participant in the Easter Seals Program since 1976.

Philo Atwood, the king of the dance party, lived life in his own magical world with a fabulous language all his own. Ever happy, Philo delighted all with his jokes. If I asked how he was doing, he would often respond “Norbitly well adrift” or “Norbitly, I am not well adrift”. He started every conversation with a compliment and he might end by saying “Get a turkey with the chicken.” When he felt he was in trouble he would say “Oh God, here we go, I’m gonna get in the neck.” If you asked about the soup “The soup is a poem. “ His mother going to the hairdresser, “She’s getting her hair defrosted.“

You might hear him complement someone at dinner “You know… You remind me of the gay 60’s”
or to a cute little blonde girl, “You know…..you look like just like Roberta Flack.“

Most sentences started with “You know…” and some conversations ended with, ”23 skidoo, I love you. “

After school Philo would sit in the arm chair in his room for hours with a red and white barber bib draped around his neck down…dreaming of having his hair cut. On other occasions he would pile all the hair onto his nieces head and collect every clip earring in the house clipping all that sparkled into her hair. Philo loved getting his hair cut. He also loved hair tonic. Anything that was liquid or gel like was open territory. A $100 bottle of tequila brought home form Mexico by my brother, diaphragm gel, hand cream it was all fair game.

Philo was so sweet and otherworldly. One always wondered if he hadn’t been brain damaged at birth what profession he would have had. We would often hear little bits of brightness in him and pearls of wisdom. Sometimes he would sit down at the piano and play…. Oddly hitting sequences or good notes for minutes at a time amidst the general cacophony. One day when asked to put away hundreds of records that were out of their sleeves, he grabbed a jumbled stack of sleeves and in a random stack of records. He spread them all out and started throwing records into covers. I too had a pile of records and after a few minutes I said “Phil, you need to put the right record into the right cover … “. He replied. “I did” Don’t you know he had 50 finished albums and they were all correctly put into the right album cover….and I had only sorted six into the correct cover in the same amount of time ….. I went downstairs and told my mother “I think he’s been faking it all these years I think he’s actually really brilliant…he probably would’ve been an investment banker.”

All who understood philo and his magic loved him. He brought joy and love to all he knew.
So……. “23 skidoo, we love you Philo, Safe travels “

Philo is survived by his sister, Mrs. John Biggs III of Wilmington, DE, his nieces, Mrs. Christopher D. Sanger and Mrs. John E. Seiffert, both of Wilmington, DE and his nephew, Mr. John A. Biggs of Los Angeles, CA, and six grandnieces and grandnephews.

Services will be private.

The family requests contributions in Philo’s memory to Easter Seals of Delaware, 61 Corporate Circle, New Castle, DE 19720.

For online condolences, please visit Chandlerfuneralhome.com.

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