Machinist aided wife's floral shop

9/12/2009

Phillip J. Harvey, 65, a factory machinist who worked beside his wife in the floral shop she started, died Sept. 5 in his Point Place home.

He was undergoing treatment for cancer, which was diagnosed in July.

Mr. Harvey retired after 30 years at the Spicer division of what is now Dana Holding Corp., where he was a machinist.

For 23 years, he helped his wife in her Point Place business, Floral Expressions.

"He was my right hand and my right arm," his wife, Connie, said.

He did bookkeeping and made some deliveries. The shop had floral coolers in the gift shops of the former Riverside Hospital and at Mercy St. Anne and Mercy St. Charles hospitals, and he helped with floral arranging.

Working so closely together was no strain. It was the point. "We loved each other," his wife said. "We shared a love. It would have been 34 years in November. We were always together and always wanted to be together."

The business closed in April.

The couple enjoyed Caribbean cruises in years past. Most recently, an outing might be watching boats together at Cullen Park. He'd have the family over often for backyard picnics and holiday celebrations.

"He was a very responsible man, but the humblest man you'd ever meet," his wife said. "There's nobody who ever met him who didn't love sitting and talking to him. He was a very mellow man and always found the best in something. He always found the positive."

He tended to his garden - chemical-free - and grew marigolds and sunflowers; tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, broccoli, and pumpkins. "He had the most luscious garden this year he ever had," she said.

He was born Oct. 12, 1943, the son of Helen and William Harvey. He grew up in North Toledo, attended Central Catholic High School, and was a graduate of Scott High School.

Surviving are his wife, Connie, whom he married Nov. 28, 1975; daughters, Jennifer Dietsch, Tracey Trevis, and Laura O'Brien; son, Chad Michael Simon; brother, Kenneth Harvey; eight grandchildren, and a great-granddaughter.

Memorial services will be at 11 a.m. today in the David R. Jasin-Hoening Funeral Home in Point Place.

The family suggests tributes to the Hickman Cancer Center at Flower Hospital, Sylvania.