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Phillip J. Avillo, Jr, (born March 22, 1942) is a Professor of History at York College of Pennsylvania and Democratic candidate for Pennsylvania's 19th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives for 2008.

Family and Background
Avillo was born in Teaneck, New Jersey in 1942. His father worked two jobs and his mother worked the graveyard shift in a plastics factory to make ends meet. Avillo earned a BA in History at Hofstra Universityin 1963. Avillo recieved an MA in History from the University of San Diego in 1970 and then a Ph.D from the University of Arizona in 1975. Avillo served as an archivist at the Office of Presidential Libraries from 1974 to 1975 before accepting the position of Professor of History at York College of Pennsylvania in 1975. As an academic, Avillo has published a number of well-referenced papers and book reviews, in addition to several free-lance publishing endeavors. Notably, he is quoted by fellow historian Howard Zinn in Zinn's work A People's History of the United States. Avillo served as chair of the York College Department of History from 1991 to 2002.

In 1968, Avillo married his wife Linda, a former nurse in the US Navy. Avillo has three adult children, Andrew, Stephen, and Susan, and three grandchildren.

Military Service
Avillo enlisted in the United States Marine Corps at age 17. He is a Vietnam Veteran who flew close to 70 combat missions as an officer between 1964 and 1966. He was awarded three Air Medals and the Navy Commendation Medal with a combat "V," as well as a Purple Heart for a wound which resulted in the amputation of his left leg above the knee.

2008 Political Campaign
Avillo was drafted to run again for Congress in Pennsylvania's 19th congressional district by a grassroots movement of over 1700 people in the district who signed petitions nominating Avillo to be their candidate in the United States House of Representatives elections in Pennsylvania, 2008. "I am simultaneously humbled and honored that so many people worked so hard over such a short period of time to initiate and to make this nomination a reality," Avillo noted.

Published Works
PAPERS
 * The Pursuit of Peace: Senators Wayne Morse, Ernest Gruening, and Vietnam, 1964- 1968, at 2001: A Peace Odyssey, Hofstra University, 2001.
 * In What Direction Are We Heading: Lyndon Johnson, The U.S. Senate, and the Vietnam War'' Lyndon B. Johnson Conference, Hofstra University, 1986.
 * Limits of Dissent: Senators Wayne Morse, Ernest Gruening, and the Vietnam War, Duquesne History Forum (November, 1984).
 * Human Rights, Property, and Race: Southern Republican Congressmen and the Collapse of Reconstruction, 1873-1877, Citadel Conference, Charleston, S.C. (1981)
 * Principles and Power: Southern Republican Congressmen and the Passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, The Southern Historical Association Annual Meeting (1978)
 * Black vs. White: The Dilemma of Southern Republican Congressmen and the Origins of Reconstruction, 1863-1867, Duquesne History Forum (October, 1977).

BOOK REVIEWS
 * Grant and Lee: The Virginia Campaigns, 1864-1865, by William A. Frassanito in The Journal of Southern History (August, 1984).
 * The Earnest Men, by Allan Bogue, in Historian (November, 1983).
 * The Politics of Race, by Phyllis Field, in Historian, 1985.
 * Sherman’s March, by Burke Davis, in Historian (February, 1982).
 * The Pennsylvania Antiwar Movement, by Arnold Shankman, in Pennsylvania History (January, 1982).
 * Day of the Carpetbagger: Republican Reconstruction in Mississippi, by William Harris,in Tennessee Historical Quarterly (Spring, 1981).
 * Shiloh: In Hell Before Night, by James Lee McDonough, in Historian (August, 1979).
 * Dispatches, by Michael Herr, in Air University Review (1979).
 * Black over White: Negro Political Leadership in South Carolina During Reconstruction, by Thomas Holt, in Civil War History (December, 1978).
 * Ambivalent Americans: The Know-Nothing Party in Maryland, by Jean Baker, in Tennessee Historical Quarterly (May, 1978).

OTHER PUBLISHED WORKS
 * Freedom is Free, York Sunday News (July 17, 2005)
 * A Modest Proposal to Win the War on Terrorism, York Sunday News (July 25, 2004)
 * ''The Heroic President: A Political Fable (Cont.), York Daily Record (February 26, 2003)
 * The Heroic President: A Political Fable, York Sunday News (December 23, 2002)
 * Tonkin Gulf Twenty Years Later, York Daily Record (August 4, 1984)
 * Colleges are Graduating Functionaries, Philadelphia Inquirer (May 25, 1980)
 * The Marines of ‘64, Marines Corps Gazette (November 1989)