Joseph A. McPhillips III
| Joseph A. McPhillips III | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1937 Mobile, Alabama |
| Died | June 11, 2007 (aged 70) Tangier, Morocco |
| Occupation | Headmaster, Teacher |
| Nationality | American |
| Relatives | Caroline Meador (sister), Dr. Frank McPhillips Jr. (brother), Frank McPhillips Jr.; Lissette McPhillips Perez-Carrillo |
Joseph A. McPhillips III, headmaster of the American School of Tangier, died on June 11, 2007 at his home on the Old Mountain Road, in Tangier, Morocco. He was 70 years old.
McPhillips was born in 1937 in Mobile, Alabama and graduated from Phillips Academy, Andover and Princeton University (1958). McPhillips came to Tangier in 1962 to teach English literature at the American School, established in 1950, and the oldest American school in Morocco. In 1973, he succeeded Omar Pound as headmaster, beginning a tenure that would span four decades and define the institution's standards and values.
McPhillips told the Washington Post, in a 2003 interview, that the American School was "the Andover of the Mediterranean. We provide an old-fashioned education. Students rise when adults come into the room. They read Lord Jim and Julius Caesar. There's not a lot of ancillary nonsense in the curriculum." As well as a rigorous and passionate teacher and administrator, McPhillips was a theater director. His annual American School plays became a Tangier tradition, and since 1964 he personally directed more than 20 of them. McPhillips's direction and producing turned the convention of high school play into high-quality dramatic art. The 1992 production of Euripides Hippolytos, in Arabic, featured an original Paul Bowles score and costumes designed by Yves St. Laurent. His staging of Tennessee Williams' Camino Real in Tangier's Petit Socco plaza was the fulfillment of McPhillips's personal promise to the playwright. In his hands, the school's annual Christmas play was based on the Koranic version of the Bethlehem story.
Among his many friends in Tangier and abroad, McPhillips had a long friendship with Jane and Paul Bowles, and at Mr. Bowles death he became the executor of the Bowles estate, a responsibility which began with personally transporting the urn carrying Bowles to his family in New York State. McPhillips, who lived in Morocco continuously until his death, told the Washington Post, "I asked Paul once, 'You've lived outside America so long, and you've travelled so extensively. Do you still feel American?' He simply said, 'I am American. I always will be.'"
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