Mr. Phillips was born and raised in Lockport, New York, which is located between Buffalo and Niagara Falls in western New York. After high school, he accepted a nomination to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. He graduated with the Class of 1968 and was commissioned an Ensign in the United States Navy.

Following Naval flight training, he was designated a Naval Aviator in 1969. Over the next twenty years, he served in a number of aviation squadrons and commanded squadrons both ashore and afloat. As a specialist in Antisubmarine Warfare, he amassed over 5000 flight hours and 500 aircraft carrier landings.

He attended the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California in the mid-seventies and earned a Master of Science degree in Financial Management. He subsequently worked in Washington, D.C. on Navy budget matters with the Office of the Navy Comptroller and the House and Senate Appropriations Committees on Capitol Hill.

In 1989, Captain Phillips was selected to command a deep draft ship and was assigned the amphibious ship, U.S.S. Ogden (LPD-5), homeported in Long Beach. Under his command, Ogden, with its crew of 300 and nearly 800 embarked Marines, was deployed to the Persian Gulf for 301 days in support of Operation Desert Storm.

After assignments as Commander of an Amphibious Squadron of four ships and 2000 Marines, and as Chief of Staff to the San Diego Regional Commander, Captain Phillips retired with over 27 years of active duty in July 1995.

He joined the City of Long Beach as a Navy Reuse Consultant in August 1995 to help coordinate the City’s planning efforts for the closed Naval Station, Hospital and Shipyard. In 1997, he became a member of the City’s management team in the Public Works Department, where he worked as Special Projects Division Officer managing several major capital projects, including the Temple and Willow Facility, the Emergency Communications and Operations Center and the seismic retrofit of the Public Safety Building. He then worked as the Special Assistant to the City Manager and City Contracts Officer until September 2001, when he was appointed as Administration Bureau Chief for the Long Beach Police Department.

Mr. Phillips is a member and Past President of the Downtown Long Beach Lions Club, and is currently serving on the Board of Directors of the California Conference for Equality and Justice of Southern California, Inc. (CCEJ), ChildNet, For the Child, The American Red Cross, the Police Historical Society and the Long Beach Playhouse.. He and Susan, his wife of 40 years, are residents of Long Beach, where Susan works as a Personal Fitness Trainer. They have a daughter, Blake, who lives in Huntington Beach and works in the Long Beach area.