MARQUETTE, MI-- The Marquette area has lost one of its cultural icons.
Phil Pearce, owner of Phil’s 550 Store, died Wednesday of brain cancer.
The general store served everyone, from hunters looking for supplies to locals looking for beer and conversation. But Phil’s 550 was perhaps best known for its outdoor sign, which sported ever-changing—and sometimes slightly off-color—slogans.
A Detroit Free Press article published in February of last year called Phil a “cult figure,” “Renaissance man” and “living legend.” T-shirts printed with his face and the phrase “Have you had your Phil today?” made their way around the world and spread Pearce’s popularity beyond the Upper Peninsula.
Free Press reporter John Carlisle said Phil was a “quintessential Yooper” who exemplified “traits associated with the Upper Peninsula — a good-time spirit, a woodsy toughness, a persistent resourcefulness.”
Phil was 64 years old.
To read the Free Press article by John Carlisle, click here.
