LEOMINSTER -- The touching motorcycle procession held on Oct. 9 in honor of Phil Desmarais was a fitting tribute and send off for the lifelong city resident and longtime American Harley Davidson business owner who was known as a stand-up guy and was loved by many.
Scores of people showed up for the funeral mass held at St. Leo Parish that sunny autumn morning and the calling hours at Richardson Funeral Home the evening before, a testament to the cherished community member who passed away the morning of Oct. 3rd at the age of 85 in his lifelong family home surrounded by loved ones.
The sheer volume of motorcycles in the procession was impressive. Over 500 bikers rolled through the city, parading from the church down Main Street and past the Central Street Harley Davidson shop Phil opened in 1978. The convoy also included a hearse carrying his casket and Phil's own custom-built motorcycle, aka The Beast, on a trailer pulled by his truck that his longtime friend Jim McDonald drove.
"Phil would help anybody anytime. He was a real hands-on business owner, and he was a really good community person," McDonald said outside the church before taking Phil on his last ride. When asked what he will miss about his friend, he quipped, "I'll miss him telling me to buy parts."
Missi Mazzaferro was another friend of Phil's who rode in the cavalcade that also included motorcycles from the Leominster, Gardner, and Milford police departments.
"He was a great guy and will be missed by many," she said.
Lunenburg resident Diane Beaudoin and her husband also rode that day in the long line of motorcycles that stretched from way before the church to way past it before they all took off together after the funeral service.
"He was one of a kind, one of the nicest guys we knew even though we drove a Honda," she said of her friend with a chuckle and a smile.
There were police stationed all along the procession route to direct traffic and people sitting in chairs patiently waiting for it to go by. When they made it to the Harley Davidson store it was a sight to see and incredible to hear, and some of the people on the backs of the motorcycles were taking videos and photos of the momentous occasion.
The caravan continued to Evergreen Cemetery, where Phil was laid to rest before everyone gathered at the Eagles Club to comfort each other and share stories about him. His longtime friend and Harley Davidson staff member Fran Przybyszewski said honoring the man who was inducted as a Legendary Leominster honoree in August of 2023 and was known as a fun guy with a great sense of humor "was an absolute thing of beauty."
"Perfect weather, motorcycles lined up outside the church...such a wonderful tribute to Phily. I know he was smiling down upon us from the heavens above," she said about the meaningful day. "He was proud of his kids and how well Travis, Kelly, Tony, JJ, and everyone who worked together to get this day run smoothly. There are too many to mention but these guys are the heart and soul. It was truly a work of art!"
Phil's daughter Diane Klingaman said her father "was a larger-than-life person" and that the tribute to him "was a fitting one."
"He was fondly called 'The Harley Guy'," Diane said of her dad. "So many people loved him because of his kindness and generosity, and he cared deeply about all of his customers and treated them like family. He loved the city of Leominster. We will all miss him and remember him as a great dad and friend. Ride free Dad."
Marlene Desmarais echoed her sister's sentiments, saying her dad "was more than my father, he was my best friend."
"I have been so lucky to have been able to work hand in hand with him for almost 40 years," she said of the Harley Davidson business he opened by remortgaging their family home. "He worked 12-hour days and then would come home and work in our garage to try and get things going. Forty-eight years later the business is a huge success. He loved all of his customers and considered all of them part of the family. He will be greatly missed by all."
Fran said her friend Phil "had an incredible life" and loved his family and friends, his hometown, and his Harley Davidson shop that was the realization of a dream he had since he was a young man. She said the wake and funeral were "a massive tribute to him" that included "a lot of people who care for him and a city who loves him."
She talked about the F-troop charity-driven motorcycle club that Phil belonged to and how they did a drive-by past his house last month to honor him and thank him for all he did.
"He was a big part of everyone's life that he touched," Fran said before sharing that Phil received over 100 greeting cards while he was sick.
"He was so happy because people sent him stories of him helping them and it warmed his heart," she said. "It was so nice that people took the time to write their stories, and he remembered every single deal. He couldn't believe he got so many cards, every day he was like a little kid waiting for his birthday mail. It was nice for the last couple weeks of his life that he had that to look forward to."
She said that back when she started working for him in 1978 at the Harley Davidson shop, there weren't as many female motorcycle enthusiasts as there are today.
"It was a learning experience, and it was fun. He had a great sense of humor and a quick wit," Fran said of the man who was more like a friend than a boss. "He was mindful and respectful of women, saying we need more women riders."
She said they would sell motorcycles to generations of riders and to people from all walks of life, mechanics and firefighters and police officers.
"We would sell a guy a bike and then his son would buy a bike from us and then his son," Fran conveyed. "Phily loved the variety of people that we had in the shop, and he liked talking to the customers and he was always interested in them. The thing about working with Phily was when you walked into his shop, you walked into his home. He made you feel like you were part of his family, and he always made people feel comfortable."
She said Phil was a very hands-on business owner and was involved in every aspect of it, from working the sales floor to fixing bikes to ordering supplies and so much more.
"He was every part of it," Fran said. "He wasn't just an owner; he ran every part of his shop and that was the uniqueness of him. Every aspect of that Harley Davidson was Phily Demar. He was always hands on in every department and you have to respect a man for that because you know that it was his true passion. He was there every day, even when he was sick until he couldn't get up and get there. He was a one-of-a-kind man, a true Harley guy, and that's what he should be known as."
His friend Bob Belanger, known as BeBop, met Phil when he was 14 and he would come by his dad's gas station downtown Leominster "cause some of the guys hung there." Bebop bought his first Harley from Phil when he was 16, a 1956 Panhead, and then started going to his house on Pond Street weekly to hang out.
"He got this crazy idea to build a V8 motorcycle, it was great," BeBop recalled. "He called it The Beast and he raced it all over the place."
When Phil opened his Harley shop, BeBop hung out there a lot until he moved to the Cape in 1978 -- but he always came back to buy his Harleys from Phil, including his last one in 2019.
"Phily was a great businessman, a smart businessman, and he treated you very fair as everyone knows," BeBop said.
Phil was proud to be a lifelong city resident and from a young age he showed proficiency in setting and accomplishing goals. He liked working with his hands and according to his obituary was driven to master anything he set his sights on. He applied the work ethic instilled in him by his parents, Bertha and Phil Desmarais, who owned and operated the Turnout variety store in North Leominster for many years, where Phil often worked after school.
He developed a keen interest in anything mechanical and was able to fix just about anything. It was not uncommon to see him after school or work and on weekends under someone's car fixing brakes or troubleshooting engine problems.
After marrying his sweetheart Betty Thornton in 1958 he worked at various part time and full-time jobs, including at a cafe and limo service before landing a job as a mechanic at Clark Forklift, where he quickly became a superstar in the greater Worcester and expanded New England regions as the guy to call to troubleshoot complex problems.
He and Betty raised their three children together - Diane, Marlene, and Phil Jr. -- in the home he grew up in, and in 1976 Phil put everything he owned into opening his American Harley Davidson dealership on Route 12. The gamble paid off as the shop was a great success right off the bat and year after year, he sold and serviced many Harley Davidson motorcycles and received numerous Harley Davidson awards of excellence throughout his time.
Phil always carried a picture of Betty, who passed away in 1986, in his wallet through the remainder of his life. He met Fran's sister Elly Przybyszewski two years after he opened his Harley Davidson shop, and the two forged a friendship that blossomed into a romance after his wife died.
"I have known Phily for 46 years and am honored to be the one whom he shared most of his life with," Elly said of her beloved. "We complimented each other in just about everything that we did together. We just fit and were a great team."
Elly said that by the time she met Phil, "he was already a cultural icon in this region."
"He was this cool guy that owned the Harley shop and possessed a fun, gracious, and incredibly grateful manner," she said of her longtime life partner. "He had just completed 11 years of motorcycle drag racing and was also very well-known in the area as a successful, hardworking businessman and had attained local celebrity status. Tons of people knew him, and he had friendships that spanned all ages and walks of life.
"He embraced life and all it presented to him whether a challenge, struggle, or success with everything he had," Elly said. "He was innately competitive even with himself, always striving to accomplish the next task before him, and was very good at achieving success and enjoyed sharing it with others."
She said he "loved and admired high performance anything," including motorcycles, cars, trucks, boats, machinery, and people.
"He loved life and looking back, he knew he had lived it fully," Elly said.
When he became ill in 2021, she became his caretaker, a role she gladly took on and was already familiar with as she had previously cared for some of her family members.
"When he became sick, all I could do was love him more. I never considered it work, although it had become increasingly challenging. I loved him that much," she said of Phil. "The night before he passed, I stayed near him and held his hand throughout the night until he took his last breath at 5:30 a.m. I am privileged to be his girl, Elly."
She said her heart feels "sorrowful" in the wake of his death and when asked what she will miss the most about him, they are simple things.
"Riding with him as one on his motorcycle or beside him while I rode mine, always an adventure," Elly said. "Sitting quietly with one another in complete comfort. Listening for him in the middle of the night waiting to hear, 'are you there El?' if he needed something. Hearing him say 'I love you El'."
She said he repeatedly expressed to her that she "should leave and live my life," that his declining health was not fair to her.
"I would always respond, 'You are not getting rid of me that easy,'" Elly said, adding that his kids would often say to him, "She's not going anywhere Dad."
"We would sit there and cry together over how incredibly lucky and blessed we were to be sharing this time in our lives, how special our love was and how most people don't get second chances with their true loves," Elly conveyed of the precious moments they shared towards the end of his life.
She revealed that the last three years of his life "were beautiful as the quality of time, conversation, and sentiments were shared with family and close friends."
"He was so thankful that I was there and would tell you today that he would have died a long time ago if I had not been there to keep him on track," Elly said. "I loved him with all my heart and was completely devoted to his needs."
She said Phil, undoubtedly the love of her life, "remained the wonderful person he was until the end and never let his illness consume his grateful heart. He was that guy."