Richard Phillips, the sea captain who offered himself as a hostage to save his crew from Somali pirates last spring, is returning to his hometown of Winchester.
Phillips is the guest speaker at a fund-raiser Tuesday for the Winchester Hospital Center for Cancer Care and the Winchester High School class of 2010.
Now a resident of Underhill, Vt., Phillips graduated from Winchester High School in 1973 and Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Buzzards Bay.
On April 8, Phillips and 19 other crew members of the Maersk Alabama - which was carrying food and aid for Rwanda, Somalia, and Uganda - were attacked off the eastern coast of Somalia. Phillips was taken hostage by four pirates, tied up, and held at gunpoint on an enclosed lifeboat for a $2 million ransom.
After a five-day standoff, three of the pirates were killed by Navy SEAL snipers, the other gave himself up, and Phillips was rescued.
Phillips said he is happy to support his former high school and the fight against cancer, which claimed the lives of both his father and father-in-law, Arthur Anthony Coggio.
The event, at McCall Middle School in Winchester, runs 7-9 p.m. Tickets are $20 and available at Book Ends in Winchester and the hospital’s volunteer office. Call 781-756-2625.
