In his personal life, he was an avid historical boater who educated and demonstrated native American and early trapper fishing and boating techniques.

[2] In the following years, his activism included erecting signs criticizing US Steel, plugging sewer outlets, placing caps on top of smoke stacks, leaving skunks on the doorsteps of the owners of polluting companies, and, in one case, transporting 50 pounds of sewage from Lake Michigan into the reception room of the company that had discharged it.

Phillips discovered Armour Dial (Henkel Corporation) had been polluting Mill Creek which emptied into the Fox River, which violated a 1962 law that limited the amount of chemicals companies could dump into the surrounding water.

Phillips gained notoriety after dumping a bucket of said toxic waste upon the desk of a Stone Container Corporation executive in Chicago.

David Dominick, Commissioner of the Federal Water Quality Administration, suggested that the Fox's activities represented a challenge as to whether "we, as individuals in a technological society, have the will to control and prevent the degradation of our environment.