Philip Merrill College of Journalism | University of Maryland

Philip Merrill Remembered as Driven Man, Loving Dad
COLLEGE PARK, Md.— Publisher, diplomat and philanthropist Philip Merrill was remembered Thursday as a man who lived a "magnificent, generous, delightful, accomplished, loving life," and who freely shared his opinions, his wealth and -- with his family -- his emotions.

The Associated Press reported that about 1,500 people, including Vice President Dick Cheney and former CIA Director James Woolsey, packed the Andrew Mellon Auditorium in Washington to remember Merrill, who died earlier this month in an apparent suicide.

Phil Merrill

Merrill, 72, went missing during a solo sailing trip June 10, when his sailboat was found adrift in the Chesapeake Bay.

His body was found nine days later near Poplar Island, and the family announced on June 20 that it appeared that Merrill took his own life. News reports have said the body was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Douglas Merrill told the crowd at the Mellon Auditorium that his father was "loud, proud, in love with his country, focused on excellence in journalism and dedicated to his wife, his children and his grandchildren," according to the AP report.

Merrill, whose $10 million pledge in 2001 led to the College of Journalism being renamed in his honor, "had great passion for education and higher education in particular," University President C.D. Mote Jr. said at the service. Besides Maryland, Merrill also supported his alma mater, Cornell, and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

"But he profoundly changed the University of Maryland, and any list of shapers of the university will have Phil Merrill's name etched on it," Mote said. "Phil saw that he could make a difference at Maryland."

Merrill was the owner and publisher of The Capital newspaper in Annapolis, The Maryland Gazette, Washingtonian magazine and four other area newspapers. He held a variety of federal duties in the departments of Defense and State and was former chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the United States, appointed by President Bush in 2002.

"Philip Merrill served as a model of what the profession of journalism is and should be," Mote had said after Merrill's death. "The pursuit of truth, the exacting of information to make sound, well-considered decisions, and the ultimate goal of service to society.

In addition to his financial support of the College, Merrill served on the University's Board of Visitors and a presidential scholars program is named after him.

"Phil ... believed in the importance of journalism in a democratic society, and he backed up that belief with his remarkable gift to this school," journalism Dean Thomas Kunkel had said of Merrill. "We will continue to try to be good stewards of that investment."

The journalism money, which Merrill wanted to have an immediate impact, went to endowing faculty chairs, graduate fellowships, equipment and outreach for the College. Merrill said he wanted his gift to help the College "achieve its goal of being the very best in the nation."

"Phil believed passionately in the transformational power of higher education," Kunkel said. "As a young man he benefited from opportunities extended to him, and he spent much of his adult life providing such opportunities to others. His legacy will live on in their accomplishments.

"A school could not have had a better patron and we could not have had a better friend," Kunkel said. "Our hearts and prayers go out to Ellie and the Merrill family during this most difficult time."

Photographs of Philip Merrill

(Photos by John T. Consoli - University of Maryland)

For more information contact: Matthew C. Sheehan at 301.405.8320.

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