After a life and career as a world renowned track athlete, educator, mentor and jazz saxophonist, Philip Martin Reavis Sr. passed away on March 21. He was 89.
Reavis was born on October 10, 1936, in Somerville, Massachusetts. During his time at Somerville High School and Villanova University, he broke several track and field milestones including a world record in the high jump.
Known for his discipline, grace, poetry, music, and laugh, Reavis will be remembered for generations. The quote chosen for his high school senior yearbook speaks to his spirit, “The day most wholly lost is that which is spent without laughter.”
In 1956, he represented the United States at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. The same year, he won the NCAA high jump championship.
“Villanova’s High-Flying Phil Reavis” landed a cover on Sports Illustrated just two years later. And in 2021, he became one of the first Black residents to have a public space in their honor in Somerville, where the high school’s new athletic field now bears his name.
After his record-breaking athletic career, Reavis traveled the world and became an educator. First moving to Cambodia to coach track, he then spent time in Vietnam and Laos before settling in Macau, China for over thirty years. There, he taught English and history and as a tenor saxophonist, led a jazz band, The Bridge.
“The name came from the bridge they crossed to reach their regular gig, but those who knew him understood that the name carried deeper meaning. Philip Reavis Sr. spent his life building bridges,” between cultures, continents, generations and people, his son, Phil Reavis Jr., wrote in his eulogy.
He is also survived by his wife, Terry Signaigo, daughter-in-law, Trecia Reavis, grandson, Philip John Reavis, brother, Richard Reavis, and sister-in-law, Cathryn Reavis.
Today, several generations of the Reavis family live in Somerville, where Phil Reavis Sr.’s grandfather lived. George Washington Reavis was born into slavery in North Carolina and moved to Massachusetts in the late 1880s. He worked as a janitor at MIT before purchasing the family’s first home in the city.
Former students remembered him as firm and kind, a joyful teacher who saw their individuality.
In countless messages over the last few weeks, “They speak of a teacher who made them feel seen; a teacher who called their full selves to attention; A teacher who gave them permission to relax, to be curious, to become more than they thought possible. One former student wrote simply: ‘He made me believe I could be someone,’” recounted his son, Philip Reavis Jr., in his eulogy.
In 2023, a group of students from Somerville High School’s local history club curated an exhibit honoring his life and legacy at the Somerville Museum. The exhibit, like his Sports Illustrated cover, came as a surprise. “I’m almost shy to it. I’m glad it happened,” he told The Banner at the time.
“Philip Reavis Sr. was a high jumper who understood something about leaving the ground. He knew that to clear the bar, you need a running start, you need lift, and you need the courage to let go of what holds you down,” Philip Reavis Jr. wrote. “… Let us honor him by remembering the laughter, by holding space for one another as he held space for so many, and by carrying forward the gift he gave so freely: the gift of making people feel that they matter.”
