Phill Kneen

I have just received the following email in response to my Christmas

email to Phill Kneen, who also posted on this forum under the name of

Andy Kay.

 

"Dear Robert, I'm not sure how well you knew Phill, however, I have

been asked to reply to any of the e-mails in his personal files.

On Christmas eve Phill was killed in a car accident outside Chamonix

in the French Alps.

As I say, I'm not sure if you are a friend, a business associate or

both, but I'm sure you will join us in sorrow."

 

Phill was a controversial character on this forum, and I will

certainly miss him.

Phill certainly was controversial, and Phill certainly was a character. I'm saddened to hear this. Regardless of the little squabbles, we need to live the here and now. It could all vanish in an instant. Thanks, Rob.

The world will be less colorful with his passing. One thing you gotta say about Phill, is whatever it is that was on his mind, he stuck to it tenaciously, thereby living up to Manx tradition to the fullest.

 

Sympathy and best wishes to his family, friends and loved ones.

As a sometimes lurker here, I remember several Phill Kneen threads and quite a lot of confusion as to who and how many Kneens there were. Now I see this today, noting the alter ego of Kneens was Andy Kay and can only think of Andy Kaufman. If the real Phill Kneen was the real gadfly and is really dead, RIP Phill.

It seems like one of his old pranks to claim himself deceased. I never could/can tell with that guy. Anyway, if true, it's sad news.

 

-Ramy

I too would not rule out some sort of miraculous 're-incarnation'.

 

Andy was very deliberate in telling us all (on the 20th Dec.) of his specific holiday destination. (Swiss Alps.)

 

Someone even replied to him to "Break a neck" (Bet they wish they had'nt if this is all true!)

 

Someone else commented... "we would not want to loose you".

 

I am thinking maybe these 2 comments sowed the seed of an idea for a little (sick) fun. This would be in character for the old Phill Kneen but a little over the top for 'Andy Kay' maybe?

 

Ah well, whatever is true, I will toast his memory after work tonight with a nice glass of Port. I may even get to toast his 'return' one day. I hope so.

Now that he is - ahem - supposedly dead, all of a sudden everybody loved PK! I did not, and

though I would never have wished him any harm, and certainly not being killed in a car accident

(?), I will not shed one tear. I have more (to me) meaningful dead to mourn. Sorry, people. As

for the reference to Andy Kaufman, at least Andy Kaufman WAS funny.

I never said I loved the guy!!!!

 

I do admire his damned be the censors attitude though, excepting the personal abuse he gave some. Even in that (the latter) there was always some sort of twist or play on words. I suppose he might be called a cunning linguist.

I'm probably not alone in this regard, but in a perverse sort of way, I enjoyed the mischief that Phill used to cause on the old forum. Never saw anyone quite like that, who could get everybody going at one time. I got a kick out of one of his comments one time when someone said something particularly nasty about him and Phill said something to the effect that he was contemplating his next action which "may involve my attorney." And this, after HE started all the sh*t!. Really twisted, clever guy.

 

About his reported demise, I don't know. Sounds like a hoax to me. Hope he didn't die, whoever he is, and whatever his real name is. But, I don't know... Sounds fishy.

Gentlemen: Before we start weeping over the cyber grave of our

"friend" Phil, I would like to know if any of our colleages can call

the French police in Chamonix and authenticate/refute this claim.

As Mark Twain said "The rumors of my demise are greatly

exagerated." Maybe Phil has taken this to heart. Without the

proof, I remain skeptical.

Car accident? Bloody hell! That half-drunken Manxman should have gone

out leaning his Norton too fast into some foggy curve, the last few

pints still warm in his belly, grinning about some new way he'd

thought of to yank the chains of those stuffed shirts over on the

Leica Forum. Alive or dead he's sure to be laughing at Charles'

gloriously appropriate pun.........

I would like to know more about him, death or alive, hope we can know more about his death and his life as well, sory for my english and the slow of my thoughts, and thank`s for sharing this Rob.

If Phill is indeed dead, then my condolences go to his family and friends. Now, before anyone rewrites history and makes him the next Mother Teresa, wasn't Phill (and his various incarnations) the reason this forum migrated from Greenspun to Photonet? I never participated in his dialogues but he seemed a bit unhinged, a jerk with no cause except to disrupt.

For too brief a time, Phill Kneen pricked the egos of those on this forum who take themslves oh-so-seriously and gave the rest of us a good laugh at it all. Farewell, Phil, and safe journey.

Like I said, all of a sudden everybody liked the guy. If this goes on like this, now I'M gonna start

regretting his departure from this forum.

Whether Phill is lurking or indeed gone, whether a person agrees with him or not, whether a person likes Phill or not, it must be a function of age that causes a person to stop and ponder when something like this comes along. I think every person we encounter leaves a little something in our soul. As we age our souls become crowded with all these encounters. When they depart we feel a small hole that character used to occupy. The small holes start to pile up. Maybe it's our own mortality we are reminded of. I don't see good in anyone's passing. I'd just as soon see this turn out to be a Phill prank. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't.

Who asked this person to reply to "Phill's" emails? How did he/she get "Phill's" password? A bit of Googling with the various names did not turn up news of this individual's demise, under whatever name. We'll need something more substantial before we go into the grieving mode. It shouldn't be too difficult, especially for our French correspondents.

 

I must say I did chortle a bit at some of his posts, but I can see how a moderator would have fits! Anyway, "PK" might be the main reason we're at Photo.Net now.

I spoke with Phil one time last May. He seemed like a nice guy

on the telephone. I hope he is still with us. He works for the

telephone company on the Isle of Man (Manxtelcom). Its number

is 633633, maybe they'd have information.

I did a little research on Phil. He has raced motorcycles on the

Isle of Man since 1984 and competed as recently as Oct. 2002.

His younger brother, Norman, also raced. As recently as

December 16, 2002, he was offering to sell a Bolex camera in

the UK. He was a central heating engineer at one point in his

career. He was married to Margaret, they have two daughters,

Sarah and Katie. I'd estimate that he was about 36 years old.

Of course, if PK raced in THE motorcycle race on the Isle of Man, it is one of the most

prestigious motorcycle road race in the world, and THE single most dangerous as well. That

throws some interesting light on the guy, and as an ex-motorcycle fan myself, I must admit this

warms me a bit towards him. But if he was indeed killed in a car accident in the French Alps, well,

that's cruelly ironic.

I have to say, he was the most alivest person I've yet seen on this forum, or on any other. Side-splittingly funny. It was obviously his practice to <I>live dangerously</I>, and I'm sure that applied to his driving as well as his forum writing. I just did a google search under his name - and of course it didn't take long before I came across some of his comments here, and I was in stitches. Long may he rave.

Oh brother. Please, give me a break. This is just what ol Phil, or Andy, or whatever his or her name is wants!! More attention. First of all, nobody around here really knows who posts under the various names people use. Phil Kneen? Might as well be Tom Jones. I say it's all fake; just another joke. I'm not breaking out the Kleenex just yet, but I'm sure considering the "pruning" shears!

Come on, Doug, if being alive means insulting people and using foul language on this forum

we're all dead, and I'm the deadiest.

Phill, please send me another personal e-mail threat from The Beyond. Prove the existance of the afterlife. Yours always, John

Tony: "Might as well be Tom Jones. I say it's all fake; just another joke. I'm not breaking out the Kleenex just yet, but I'm sure considering the "pruning" shears!"

 

Who are you?

 

Tony Rowlett? Tom Jones, Phil Kneen?

 

Cutting shears?