Lawrence S. Phillips ’48

Published in the March 16, 2016, Issue

A native New Yorker, Larry was born March 20, 1927, and died Sept. 11, 2015, at his home in Boca Raton, Fla. He was 88.

Larry attended Horace Mann School and the Lawrenceville School. After Navy service, he majored in history at Princeton. Immediately after graduation in 1948, he joined the family clothing company, Phillips Van Heusen, and had a career of almost 50 years in all aspects of the business. Larry became chief executive in 1987.

He was widely known and honored as a philanthropist, especially as a founder and the president of American Jewish World Service, a worldwide agency with projects beyond exclusively Jewish causes. He was also a major supporter of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, and founded the ambulatory care center at New York’s Beth Israel Hospital. After retirement, he stayed active in social-service and philanthropic causes.

Larry is survived by his children, David and Laura; sister Carol Green; his former wife and mother of their children, Ann Phillips; his former wife, Roxane Lipton; and four grandchildren.