See the Portrait of William Battle Phillips (1857-1918).

Notes and Links

• m1. Minerva Ruffin McNeill, before 1881
• William and Minerva had 3 children:
  • William Battle Phillips, Jr., b. Feb. 7, 1881 in Chapel Hill; d. Nov. 27, 1971 at Pittsburg PA (bur. in Burgettstown PA)
    • m. Lida Warwick Fulton on May 6, 1911 at New Cumberland WV.
    • No children.
  • Drury McNeill Phillips, b. June 18, 1887 at Chapel Hill, d. Dec. 30, 1976 at Newport News VA (bur. in Huntsville TX)
    • m. Harriet Blanch Gates on Sep. 18, 1913 at Watertown NY;
    • Two sons: William Gates Phillips and Harry Battle Phillips.
  • Laurence Vermeule Phillips, b. Dec. 6, 1898,Birmingham AL; d. in Austin TX;
    • m. Anne Lewis Preston on June 29, 1926 in Austin TX.
    • No children.

• m2. Angie Isabel Miller in 1908.

Brief Biography:

He received his A.B.from UNC in 1877. He studied for a year at the School of Mines at Freiburg, Germany, then earned a Ph.D. in geology from NC State in 1883, (then the NC Experiment Station), and taught chemistry there 1877-82.

He was an industrial chemist for the Navassa Guano Co. 1882-1885, Professor of chem. and mineralogy at UNC, 1886-1888, and at the Univ. of AL 1891-93. He worked as a mining engineer in Birmingham from 1888-1892 and a chemist for the Tenn. Coal, Iron & Railway Co. in Birmingham , 1894-98.

He was with the Engineering and Mining Journal 1893, American Manufacturer, and Iron World, 1897-98. He was Director of the Univ. of TX (UT) Mineral Survey in Houston, 1901-05, UT's Bureau of Economic Geology and Technology, 1909-14.

He was appointed President of the Colorado School of Mines, where he served in the years 1915-17.

He developed health problems in 1917, probably influenza, possibly aggravated by the high altitudes in Colorado. He resigned as President of the Colorado School of Mines and returned to Houston TX, where he died on June 7, 1918, possibly a victim of the great pandemic flu of 1818. He was buried in Chapel Hill NC. Over his lifetime, he contributed to more than 300 articles in scientific and learned publications.