Laughlin Phillips [SEP] father
co-founded a local magazine.
Early life.
Laughlin Phillips, nicknamed Loc, was born in Washington, D.C. in 1924, the son of Duncan Phillips, an art collector and critic, and Marjorie Acker Phillips, a painter. He had one sibling, Mary Marjorie, born in 1922, who contracted encephalitis at a young age and was institutionalized. According to Phillips, "she was severely brain damaged and never got beyond being four years old." Phillips was named after his great-grandfather, James
Phillips Memorial Gallery after the sudden, untimely deaths of his father, Duncan Clinch Phillips (1838–1917), a Pittsburgh window glass millionaire, and brother, James Laughlin Phillips (May 30, 1884 – 1918).
Beginning with a small family collection of paintings, Phillips, a published art critic, expanded the collection dramatically. A specially built room over the north wing of the family home provided a public gallery space. With the collection exceeding 600 works and facing public demand, the Phillips family moved to a new home