Waldemar Bruce Philip

Waldemar Bruce Philip (Gamma)

Grand Regent: 1925-1932

(From the History of Kappa Psi; D. Garner, 1993)

Waldemar Bruce Philip was born on July 19, 1878 in Sacramento, California. His mother, Louise Ashby Philip, was born in Germany and died when he was three years old. His father, Robert Philip, was born in England and could not work and care for the Bruce following Louise’s death. Bruce was placed with a friend of the family, Dr. Miller, of San Rafael, in Shasta County, and of San Francisco. When Bruce was twelve years old, his father remarried and Bruce went back to the re-established home in Sacramento. Bruce graduated from Sacramento High School in 1896. He received his Ph.G. Degree from the University of California College of Pharmacy in 1901, his Phar. D. Degree from the New York College of Pharmacy in 1904, and his Law Degree from the Hastings College of Law at the University of California in 1923.

On November 24, 1904, he married Fayetta Harris, a classmate at the University of California College of Pharmacy. She too was a phar­macy graduate and a member of Lambda Kappa Sigma Pharmaceutical Fraternity. Dr. and Mrs. Philip had two children, Mercedes, who gradu­ated from the University of California in 1929, and Harold, who gradu­ated from the University of Oregon.

 Bruce’s contact with Dr. Miller instilled in him the desire to be­come a druggist and to secure a college education. He secured drug store employment with O.P. Willis, and later with George Munroe in Fresno. While in pharmacy school, he secured a drug store position with Dr. Albert L. Stoll in San Francisco. After graduation, he was again em­ployed by his former employer, O.P. Willis, and within one year, was a partner in the pharmacy. He and his wife, Fayetta, opened, in February, 1905, their own drugstore in Fruitvale, California. Between 1905 and 1920, they opened two additional pharmacies under the name, Philip and Philip.

Bruce Philip lectured and instructed in commercial pharmacy and pharmacy law at the University of California College of Pharmacy for a decade. He organized and later served as President of the Alameda County Pharmaceutical Association. He was Vice President and Legal Counsel for the National Association of Retail Druggists. He served as Chairman of the American Pharmaceutical Association’s House of Del­egates and, in 1932, was installed as the 80th President of APhA. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of the United States Pharmaco­peia. While living in Washington D.C., he taught pharmacy jurispru­dence at the George Washington University College of Pharmacy. The Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science honored him with the Ph.M. Degree and the National University in Washington conferred on him the degree of Master of Law.

In 1903, Brother Philip was initiated into Gamma Chapter while attending graduate school at Columbia University in New York City. Among his classmates, was Henry Goeckel. Bruce’s lifetime contribu­tion to Kappa Psi are enormous. He is responsible for expanding Kappa Psi west—far west—of the Mississippi. He was the moving spirit in the organization and the installation of Beta Gamma Chapter at the Uni­versity of California in San Francisco on September 23, 1910. He later installed Beta Omicron Chapter at the University of Washington on April 15, 1916 and Beta Pi Chapter at Washington State University on April 18, 1916.

 Bruce Philip served as a Grand Officer from 1913 until his death in 1936. The offices included: Grand Registrar (1913-20); Grand Historian (1920-24); Grand Regent (1925-32); and Grand Counselor (1932-36). He served as Grand Regent for three terms, refused re-election for a fourth term, and was then unanimously elected Grand Counselor, the national office he held at the time of his untimely death. Bruce served as the first Grand Regent following the reorganization in 1925 and later became the Fraternity’s first Grand Counselor.

 Dr. Philip died at his home, located at 6478 Moraga Avenue in Oakland, California on July 13, 1936, six days short of his 58th birth­day. He had been ill for the greater part of a year. The funeral services were attended by hundreds of representatives of the American Pharma­ceutical Association, the National Association of Retail Druggists, and Kappa Psi Pharmaceutical Fraternity.

 W. Bruce Philip had a remarkable career: a pharmacist, who built, owned, and operated three pharmacies at the same time; an organizer of successful trade associations; a lawyer with a large and profitable prac­tice; a college instructor over a period of years; and a business man of broad achievement and sound practice. Bruce was always ready to serve in the interest of Pharmacy and Kappa Psi. He was one of our most brilliant, gifted, and beloved brothers.