earl n. phillips
Earl Phillips (b.1897 d.1975) was an entrepreneur who saw the potential of the home furnishings industry and, over a 50-year career, founded companies offering upholstery fabric, polyurethane foam, springs, financing, and showroom facilities.
After college at Washington and Lee University and William and Mary College, Phillips joined DuPont as a sales representative for the state of Virginia. In 1932, he moved to High Point, and with his uncle W. Stanley Davis, founded Phillips Davis, Inc. This fabric converting and sales company grew to become Phillips Mills, which included a fabric weaving mill in Monroe, N.C., and a velvet mill in Jamestown, N.C.
Phillips co-founded Phillips Foscue Corporation in 1957, Factors, Inc., a financial services provider, was started in 1958, and First Factors in 1972. Seeing the need for showroom and hotel space for the growing Southern Furniture Market, he, with others, was instrumental in the development of the Furniture Plaza Showroom Building and the adjacent Holiday Inn.
Phillips also enjoyed business endeavors "related to the industry" and was founding chairman of the world-renowned Hatteras Yacht Company and the String & Splinter Club, a High Point community institution. He served as Mayor of High Point from 1945 to 1949 and endowed the Phillips School of Business at High Point University in 1965.