Phil Maronilla said:

Dear Patrick,

after weeks of grief and several events in Brooklyn, London and Germany relating to Phil`s tragic death, I deeply feel the need once more to express my family`s thankfulness for what you and the members of Kissena have done during this time. Gabi, Tom and I shall always remember the kind reception at Brian`s place, the touching event at Manhattan Bridge on June 24, and the celebration of Phil`s life in Prospect Park on Sep 8.  Having met you and your Kissena Cycle Club teammates it is easy to understand how much Philip did enjoy this lovely companionship (as he had mentioned to me several times before on the phone).

We have buried the urn with Philip`s ashes on Sep 28 in the family grave at Quelle cemetery near the city of Bielefeld, Northrine-Westphalia, Germany. Afterwards we held a celebration with family and friends, on which occasion I gave a speech in which I cited some of your kind words at the gathering at Manhattan Bridge – see attached a translation of my talk.

 May I ask you to please pass on our gratitude to all the friends at Kissena. 

With all the best wishes to you and Kissena and my warmest regards,

 Matthias Ginsberg

28.09.2018 – Restaurant „Schlichte-Hof“, Quelle nr. Bielefeld

Dear friends and family,

It’s not easy having to give a speech in memory of someone who has passed, and even harder when it concerns the death of your own child. The shock at the unexpected and sudden death of such a seemingly fit and healthy 36 year-old hits hard, and it’s not easy to come to terms with events.

What makes it both harder as well as a little easier is the memory of Philip’s personality - we all experienced his happy and positive character. To enjoy life to its full was part of that and I am tempted to almost call him a ‘Lebenskünstler’ [someone who has perfected the art of living]. Because of this, it’s good to know that he filled his last day doing what he loved: spending a sunny Sunday morning cycling with friends from Kissena Cycling Club via the Brooklyn bridge to Manhattan, over the Hudson to New Jersey and then back home to Brooklyn on the Manhattan Bridge - which is where death suddenly took him and all the attempts at resuscitation undertaken by his cycling teammates were in vain. As I said, there’s some comfort to be taken from the knowledge that he spent his last day in this way. 

Standing alongside this joy for life was for Philip the engagement of others, in particular those less fortunate. This was manifest in one of his first professional positions: from 2009-20012 working for a non-profit organisation called Teach First that delivered educational and social support to underprivileged areas in society. 

At this time Phil was already deeply ingrained with English culture: at 14 he came to Britain and a pupil at Kelly College, a boarding school in Devon, where he became a fully engaged member of the institution, culminating in the Headmaster - Mr. Turner - making Philip the ‘head boy’ in his final year of school. I will always remember the moment at the school’s graduation when Mr. Turner turned the attention of his address to Philip: „And now to Philip Ginsberg: Philip, he is a thinker.” With this clear observation he struck exactly at the certain something that his mother had identified years before, when she answered one of Philip’s questions and days later he would come back with a detailed follow-up question. He had naturally taken the time to think about it. And this was always the case: his laugh was spontaneous but before he spoke, he had carefully thought about what he was going to say. It wasn’t always easy to argue with his razor-sharp logic - in particular for us parents, when we deemed it necessary for educational reasons. 

Under the strong joint encouragement of Gabi and Mr Turner, Philip was persuaded to accept - at the last minute - the offer of the Director of Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio, to undertake a full academic year of study there and add a ‘made in the USA’ school year to his experience. Afterwards, Philip returned to England and fittingly undertook a Philosophy & French degree at UCL in London, followed by a MA in ‘Critical Methodologies’ at King’s College, where he was awarded ‘Best In Class’ and a ‘Distinction for Dissertation’ as part of his successful graduation. This was towards the end of 2006, and to my joy he came to Berlin for a year and a half afterwards, where he undertook internships at several art institutions. This, because at the time his ideal career goal was to become a curator at something like MoMa or The Tate - sounds ambitious but that’s how he was. And without goals to aim for, how can we achieve anything in life?

He took the same approach in the field of sport. Whilst in Ohio, he had learned to play lacrosse: a very fast ball game that has its origins in Native American culture. What can I say – he played in the Berlin club ‘Blax’ and in 2007 won the German National championship with them in Munich. 

As always Philip raised the bar high for his next endeavour, I’m sure in part precipitated by his experience at Teach First. I still remember the telephone conversation like it was yesterday: ‘Dad, wherever I will work, I will need management skills. So I want to complete a Masters in Business Administration, and I want to do it at an American university.’ Important for context is to know that the more prestigious American universities insist on tough entry examinations to their MBA programmes. To this day I remain deeply impressed how hard Philip worked for them, in particular in the field of mathematics which was never his strongest suit, having chosen not to do it at the higher levels of school. More advanced algebra, for example, was completely new territory for him. But he did it, and in 2014 he graduated with an MBA from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Along the way he won the Amazon Prize in the FuturTech Product Marketing Competition and the Michigan state championship for his age group in his latest sport discipline, Cyclocross. 

Above all else, for him the most important thing was finding Ebony. Together with her, he first lived and worked in San Francisco. Gabi, Tom and I took the opportunity to visit them and spent some wonderful days together in the summer of 2015. Then, they decided to embark to New York together, which Ebony knew well and was a good deal closer to Europe too. 

Dear Ebony, it`s time to turn to you now. May I say how happy we are having you with us today, and how much we have felt comforted when we, together with so many of Phil`s friends, were part of the celebration of his life just three weeks ago in Prospect Park Brooklyn, the place where you both were so happy together. And Gabi and will always remember those lovely days end of this May we spent with you, dear Ebony, and Phil, at Tom`s and Andrea`s home near London, unburdened, lighthearted days, so far away from death and darkness – a memory to cherish for ever.

Oh yes – we would have loved to have spent more time together, unfortunately in recent years the ocean and in particular some difficult US Visa regulations made this a real challenge. But we always talked on the phone and kept each other up to date. And then we had these wonderful days in May in London, without any thought given to sickness and death. Rather, enjoying how beautiful life can be and discussing plans for Philip and Ebony’s wedding. When a serious subject did raise its head, it was because Philip - as so often - asked me about my thoughts on the contemporary situation in Germany and on this occasion I raised my concerns around the increasing disintegration of seemingly stabile and taken-for-granted global interactions. 

But let us remember a young man full of charm and enthusiasm, joy of life and confidence. I believe that the photos you can see of Philip here today reflect some of that. Gabi, Tom and I met with some of Philip’s team friends from ‘Kissena’ cycling club on Manhattan bridge, close to the spot where almost exactly one week before he had fallen from his sudden heart attack. There the president of the cycling club, Patrick Grehan, gave a very moving speech - and I cannot think of bringing my own words to a better close than with a quote from Patrick’s speech: 

„We share a common experience of Phil. Whether we knew him well or had just met him once, everyone was taken by his warmth and positivity. He was a sweetheart, an optimist, and was everybody`s mate… So while many of you undoubtedly feel saddened by this tragic loss, I encourage each of you to hold on to a little of how Phil impacted us and pay it forward by spreading some of that positivity to others. When you leave today, share some of your gratefulness and positivity with family, friends or better yet a stranger. Then tomorrow, do it again and then the next day and so on and so on. This way a little bit of Phil will stay with us.”

Or, with Poet Rainer Maria Rilke: „Wenn ihr mich sucht, sucht in euren Herzen. Habe ich dort eine Bleibe gefunden, lebe ich in euch weiter.“  [When you look for me, look within your hearts. Have I found a space there, I will continue to live through you.]

Dear all, this is the speech that I wished I would never have had to give. We thank you for coming today and your support. It’s nice, to spend some time here together and later to visit Philip’s grave.

And now, let us toast Philip with a glass of champagne, because as said, his standards were high, and he would have expected no less from us!

Many thanks.

Many of you will remember that last year on June 17th, Phil Ginsberg died on the Manhattan bridge of a cardiac issue returning from a group ride with several teammates. Phil’s friends and teammates will surely find ways to remember him. 

The board thought it would be appropriate to remember his passing at this first anniversary in the following way. First, those of us at Saturday’s L&C Cup will wear black arm bands as a reminder of his loss and to honor Phil. See me at registration as I will have armbands. 

Second, Eloy will be leading a remembrance ride in Prospect Park on Monday (the actual anniversary). This will likely be a low key event meant to honor his memory. Look out for Eloy’s announcement if you would like to attend. 

For either event we can share

memories or stories if we wish or just remember him privately. Whatever feels right