Roger Phillips, World-Class Tool Collector

Chronicle of the Early American Industries Association, Inc., The, Jun 2003 by Englund, David

Roger Phillips was born in 1924, the son of a builder of One homes in Portland, Oregon, who passed away when Roger was eight years old. Roger's mother then opened a boarding house to provide for her three children. It was Roger's job to stoke the furnace, wait on tables, and wash dishes. In 1936, Roger's mother drove to Eugene, Oregon, to visit her daughter and new grandchild, and from there she drove over to the coast to visit Roger, where he was attending Boy Scout Camp. Unfortunately, on her way home, she died in an automobile accident. Roger's sister and her husband ran the boarding house for a year until it could be sold, and then Roger and his brother were taken in by his uncle.

In 1937, Roger's uncle, who was now his legal guardian, had a talk with him about his future. It was decided that Roger, now thirteen years old, should enter Benson Polytechnical School in Portland, Oregon. Roger elected to take the four-year program, whieh would also qualify him to enter college. The program was set up to take the students through a series of courses in cabinet building, drafting, plumbing, electrical, and sheet metal work. Roger loved it. Each day, he attended school until 2 o'clock, and then worked in his apprenticeship training at a local cabinet shop for another four hours. He stayed at his uncle's home in a room that Roger had built for himself in the basement.

After completing school and his apprenticeship, Roger started attending Oregon State College in Corvallis, Oregon. But by now, it was 1942, World War II had begun, and after about a year at college, Roger wanted to join up. And at about that same time, his uncle decided to move to Burbank, California, and wanted Roger to help with the move. That allowed Roger to establish California residency, so he could join the Navy. Not long after, at a USO dance, he met Eleanore, and at age nineteen, he married her. While Roger served at the Watsonville Naval Air Station, he and Eleanore lived in a little apartment in Watsonville, California.

Roger was twenty-two when he finished his military service, and he needed a job. One of his uncle's neighbors owned the Grande Cabinet Company in Glendale, and he hired Roger. Roger and Eleanore moved to Glendale, California, and he worked at Grande for four years, until the owner of the California Fixture Company offered Roger a job as a foreman. After three years, Roger was offered another job as superintendent of Nelson Fixture Company, a firm of thirty employees. Roger ran this firm until 1960, when there was a fire at Nelson Fixture and it burned down.

Meanwhile, by 1960 the owner of the Grande firm had retired, and the shop had dwindled down to only three employees, providing the opportunity for Roger to buy the business. Roger got permission to redo the five jobs that had been underway but were destroyed in the Nelson fire, and he hired the best of the old Nelson firm employees to work with him at Grande. These cabinetmakers, who came primarily from Europe, were extremely well-skilled, and the Grande firm once again became a going concern. Within three years, Roger needed an additional sixteen thousand square feet of room to handle the growing business. He approached the bank for a construction loan, but the banker suggested instead Roger check out another large Hrm that was in trouble. Roger did, and he purchased General Fixture, employing another thirty men. It took some time, but Roger built a reputation on a national scale for building bank and corporate offfice interiors and many other jobs where clients wanted the finest quality work. Over the years, he was awarded contracts for the interiors of about twenty casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, as well as many fine hotels in the continental United States, Hawaii, and Europe. Many of the casinos were large jobs that took about a year each to complete. By 1979, Roger wanted to retire, and he sold his business to his employees. Part of the sales agreement stipulated that he would stay on for three more years to make the transition, but as things turned out, he stayed a total of ten years. In 1980, Roger and Eleanore bought their home in La Jolla and rebuilt it in about a year's time.

Roger had become interested in antique tools when he added a family room to his house in 1945. He selected unusual tools from the tool chests of both his father and grandfather and put them on the wall. Later, when Roger and Eleanore went to a car parts swap meet in Hershey, Pennsylvania, they decided to rent a car and drive around the area for a vacation. By chance, they came upon Minor Cooper's antique shop in Winsor, New York, and bought some antique tools from him. Minor Cooper showed Roger a copy of The Chronicle, and told him about a meeting that next weekend at the Mercer Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. At that meeting, the many little rooms in the museum in which the tools were displayed were open to EAIA members, and Roger had a great time handling all the fine examples of antique tools collected by Henry Mercer, and he decided to join the EAIA at that meeting.