Phillip Ray Schuman, 84, passed away peacefully on July 18, 2013 at home after a long illness. The youngest of four brothers, Phil was born on February 6, 1929 in Rochester, Minnesota to Grace Irene Perry and George Schuman. The family moved to Sacramento, California when Phil was young. After serving in the US Army, Phil rose rapidly from a dance instructor to a studio owner with the Arthur Murray Dance Studios. Phil owned Arthur Murray and Fred Astaire Dance Studios in Tacoma, Washington and Beverly Hills, Inglewood, Hawthorne and Long Beach, California with his wife, Elizabeth (Winifred Balsiger) and later an independent studio in Hamilton, Ontario Canada.
He went on to become a successful entrepreneur in various businesses including real estate development, shopping plazas and weight loss centers with his later wife, Christine (Joyce Ann May). After beginning in Toronto, Ontario Canada with a chain of Hilton-Stauffer figure salons, he began his first weight loss center business in the greater Cleveland area, and spread those operations to Akron, Canton and Cincinnati, Ohio. Later, usually in association with his decades' long partner Mr. Donald K. Gearheart, he co-founded weight loss center operations in Detroit, MI, Chicago, IL, Kansas City, MO, Dallas, Houston and Austin, TX, Los Angeles, CA, Boston, MA, and Washington, DC. With his family, he opened 23 centers in New York City, Long Island and New Jersey, and subsequently 26 centers in south Florida.
An avid lifelong student of history, Phil traveled the world, and lived abroad at times in Toronto, Canada and in Costa Rica. He had a private pilot's license and enjoyed flying, boating and fast cars. In the early '80s he moved to Fort Lauderdale, FL, where he enjoyed the south Florida waterside lifestyle. He first lived by the Atlantic Ocean on the Galt Ocean Mile, and then on the intercoastal waterway, in the Seven Isles off Las Olas Boulevard, and since 2003, in Bay Colony. He enjoyed casino gaming as his lifelong hobby interest. He was so skilled at blackjack that casinos feared his play, and he was regularly subjected to casino counter-measures and often outright barred from play throughout Nevada, the northeastern states, the Mississippi River area casinos, and south Florida gaming venues.
Phil is survived by his four children: Phillip, Lynn, Bill, and Christopher; his four grandchildren: Kathryn, Phillip, Michael, and Kristina; and two great grandchildren: Thomas and Robert. He was pre-deceased by his loving wives, Elizabeth (Winifred) Balsiger and Christine (Joyce) Ann May. Private services are being held at 2:00 p.m. on Friday July 26, 2013 at The Gardens, 4103 N. Military Trail, Boca Raton, FL 33431. In lieu of flowers, we encourage donations in his name to the Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), or the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Association (IAVA).
