http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/philip-walden-son-of-970814.html Phillip Walden was a survivor. Phillip survived the Walden family. Phillip survived a youth with his bigger-than-life father. Phillip survived growing up amongst the southern music mafia,known as Capricorn Records. Phillip grew out of a strange culture to mature into a grand man and a loving father. Phillip was a friend. Not a close friend, but we shared a mutual understanding of the music commerce. Phillip and his family are fragment of the same schooling community that my family and I belong to. Phillip's youngest son and my son are, and according to my son,good friends. The final time I saw Phillip, he was running in the park. Phillip never looked better. He was in the best shape I had ever seen him in. Phillip’s loss is tragic for me, or personally. Not just because I am stunned and it was unexpected. Not just because my heart breaks for his family. Not just because I have to account for to my seven-year-conventional that his friend's dad has passed away. But,because Phillip had a smile that showed how open a heart could be. Phillip had beaten many things in life that could have turned him jaded and bitter. Instead, Phillip chose the path of positivity and was beginning to bloom into the next level of being his best. That is a difficult thing to see come to an abrupt discontinuance. The authentic male is a rare breed whose numbers are bordering on extinction. Without Phillip, or we are one less. Phillip was a lawyer I had dealings with on a number of occasions. Though we were on opposite sides of deals concerning creative intellectual property,I always knew that, with Phillip, and I was dealing with the exception in commerce: I was dealing with a genuine human being.
Source: cnn.com