Phil Harris of Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch program died recently.  The Internet has been full of supportive posts to his family so I won’t go into detail here.  Although, if you would like to express your condolences to his family, there is a thread over on Discovery’s forum where you may do so (it’s up to almost 400 pages as I write this).

What prompted me to post here today, is a remembrance thread that Mike “Mr. Voice Over” Rowe from Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs  made on his MikeRoweWorks.com site.

I was saddened to hear of Phil’s passing, mostly for his sons.  I know what it’s like to lose a father and that is a difficult time for any child.  Mike’s post on his site is well worth the read.  Seriously, click the link above, he is a wonderful writer.  As much as I enjoy watching Mike on television I think he really missed his calling as a writer.  I’ve read/listened to a couple of speeches he’s made a various appearances and he is one of the most eloquent people I’ve ever had the pleasure of listening to.  If you’ve never heard his keynote speech about Lamb Castration, PETA, and American Labor it is well worth the twenty minutes of your time.

I won’t pretend to know Phil other than what I’ve seen on the Discovery channel, but I can corroborate one part of Mike’s post:

 He focused on every single person who waited to meet him, and found something original to say at every turn. He answered questions that were way too personal, and stayed well beyond his required time, waiting until the last person in line shook his hand, an older guy who told Phil how pleased he was for the chance to meet a genuine American hero. Phil blushed, signed the guys hat, and thanked him for waiting to say hello.

Phil and his sons were at the grand opening of a business near where I live and the local radio DJ was there as well.  The DJ told a very similar story the next morning, about how the assistant was trying to get Phil to leave saying that the “allotted time” was up.  The quote, as told by the DJ was to the effect of “Eff you, these people came here to see me, I’m not leaving until I’ve seen every one of them waiting in line.”  And he did, he stayed well into the night and did meet-and-greet on every last person there that wanted to see him.

Phil was, without a doubt, my favorite of the Captains on the show.  And I think Mike hits the nail on the head on his final analysis of the situation:

I guess it comes down to this. The world is desperate for authenticity. In business and in real life. In work and play. We crave it I think, because it’s in such short supply. Consequently, when we see it, we’ll wait for it. We’ll watch it on TV. We’ll stand in line for a chance to be near it. Fans, fishermen, CEO’s – we know authenticity when we see it, even if we’re not looking for it. And Phil Harris had it in spades.

With Phil’s passing, I’m down to two favorite people on the Discovery Channel now, Mike Rowe and Adam Savage.  And I think the reason that those two are my favorite is the same reason:  Authenticity.  Those two have it in just as many spades as Phil did.

In the unlikely event this post makes it to Mike’s monitor:  Thank you Mike, for a wonderful remembrance of Phil.  Don’t ever stop being dirty.