Phyllis E. Burch ’60 and Peter O. Mikes

Phyllis and Peter both loved travel, perhaps because he grew up trapped behind the Iron Curtain, and she felt confined to an island. Language was another shared interest, as was their sense of humor, seeing the absurd in all situations. Phyllis believes that a strong sense of the absurd is essential to surviving in today’s world, weathering job loss, illness, bureaucracies and poorly designed technology. It is also the key to a joyful marriage. After retiring in 2002, Phyllis and Peter moved to the Czech Republic, living in Prague in the winter and in their 1775 peasant’s cottage in the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands during spring and summer.

 

Both Peter and Phyllis felt strongly that education is the key to living up to one’s potential and to contributing to the world. Anchored in her memories of Hawai‘i and their life together in Czechoslovakia, they were always amused by coincidental connections between the two worlds, like the discovery at the Bishop Museum of a playbill which celebrated the opera singer, Madame la Princesse Ululani, from Hawai‘i, who was featured as Cio Cio San in “Madama Butterfly” in a production near Prague.

 

Peter passed away in March 2019, and Phyllis was inspired to commemorate their life together by establishing three endowed funds in their names with a bequest from her estate. Recently, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and facing health challenges of her own, Phyllis was moved to establish an endowed fund for Academy Physics, the first of the three funds. In Phyllis’ words, “We are funding equipment for the physics department, kindergarten teachers’ innovations, and student scholarships. Please leaven with humor.”