Phil Baugh ’96

Phil Baugh ’96 shares what it means to him to be a “Hotelie for Life”:

“Initially, I thought that relationships with my fellow Cornell Hotelies were helping me grow in my career, but I did not realize how further impressed I would be by my Hotelies. In November 2014, I discovered I had brain cancer. I never expected this huge change in my life. But the support that my family and I got from Hotelies was amazing. I knew I was going to stay positive and my new motto was “Team Happy….”

I stayed in the hospital, and 4 days later I had 7.5 hours of surgery through which I was awake and working with my doctors as they cut out large pieces of my brain. From that moment, everything in my life changed. Because sections of my brain were now gone, I was reduced to the ability of a 1yo child. It took almost a year for me to get parts of my basic abilities back. Still today, I am rather challenged to speak well because large parts of my brain were removed.

Over those first months and continuing to today, news spread amongst Hotelies around the world and so many people have done wonderful things for me. There have been cards, emails, calls, and gifts from Hotelies, and sharing of their time. All I can say is that I am so encouraged to be fighting my disease with the help of my Hotelie friends.

So at 40, I was no longer going to develop my professional career. From that point on, I have committed to work every day to try and beat my brain cancer. There is still a long way to go as my brain cancer is still very active, but I am committed to beat it! Over the past 3.5 years, there have been so many Hotelies who have helped me in so many ways and I can’t thank them enough. I have been very happy to be in touch with Hotelies who care so much, like in the attached picture when Andrea Foster ‘96 and I met up in Milwaukee, WI.

Cornell Hotelies really are “incredible people.” The relationships I’ve built over all these years are what it means to me to be a Hotelie for Life.”