Phillip Boxer, one of the earliest faculty members at Metropolitan State College of Denver, chair of its English Deprt. and dean of the School of Liberal Arts, passed away Jan. 13, 2014, in Denver. He was 97.
Rabbis Joseph Black and Steven Foster officiated at the Jan. 16 service held at Temple Emanuel. Interment followed at Emanuel Cemetery. Feldman Mortuary made the arrangements.
Daughter Sarah Boxer said that her father was a born manager, a self-made scholar, a memorable teacher and a lifetime flaneur who loved watching society hum.
Mr. Boxer was born Dec. 17, 1916, in Kansas City, Mo., to Hyman Boxer and Eva Appleman Boxer, immigrants from shtetls in Ukraine. Known as Pilpel or Feetsie as a child, he was the eldest of three brothers. His mother, who died a week after his 10th birthday, imbued him with a love of high culture.
In Kansas City, Mr. Boxer immersed himself in education and culture. He heard Norman Thomas, Sinclair Lewis and Alfred Adler lecture at the Ivanhoe Temple and caught musical legends Count Basie, Bennie Moten and Andy Kirk and his 12 Clouds of Joy.
Mr. Boxer put himself through school the Junior College of Kansas City and later the University of Kansas at Lawrence by selling womens shoes at Florsheim.
He earned a degree in business in 1938.
He then moved to Galveston, Texas, where he worked for the Army Signal Corps. In 1941, he worked as an economist with the War Production Board in Washington, DC. Along with his brother Jack, he toured the local cultural and academic sights and regularly went to New York to frequent café society.
A radio technician in the Navy during WW II, Mr. Boxer was assigned to Camp Wallace near Galveston after the war and interviewed returning sailors. He was honorably discharged in 1946.
That same year, his brother Martin asked Phillip to help run a steakhouse in Denver. From 1946-1965, Mr. Boxer was the co-owner of Boxers Steakhouse on Colfax Ave.
Mr. Boxer met Florine Thorn in New York City. They were married in 1951.
While he was managing the steakhouse, Mr. Boxer earned an MA and PhD in English literature, a lifelong passion, from DU.
Interviewed for a teaching position by the dean of the new Metropolitan State College, he was hired on the spot despite his lack of teaching credentials.
Phillip and Martin sold Boxers Steakhouse in 1965.
At Metro, Mr. Boxer taught English literature, philosophy and religion, then chaired the English Dept. and became dean of the School of Liberal Arts; co-sponsored the Rocky Mountain Language Assn.s annual conference; was president of the Colorado Humanities Program; and founded the New Campus Review and Cultural Caravan.
He was named dean emeritus of the School of Liberal Arts in 1987.
Mr. Boxer and his wife attended the Aspen Music Festival every summer for 50 years, belonged to Friends of Chamber Music, Germinal Stage and other arts groups.
He kept a journal on and off for 75 years. In the margins he noted his blood pressure and copied quotes from Bertolt Brecht to Shakespeare that captured his moods.
Mr. Boxer is survived by his wife Florine Boxer; daughters Susan Eve Boxer of San Francisco and Sarah Gail (Harry Cooper) Boxer of Washington, DC; and grandson Julius Boxer-Cooper.
Copyright © 2014 by the Intermountain Jewish News
