He embraced the principle that those who have achieved great wealth should give back for the public good and create institutions dedicated to that purpose.

The Phipps family owned country estates in Old Westbury, New York, on the Gold Coast, the stretch of land on the North Shore of Long Island that once held the greatest concentration of wealth and power in America.

During World War II, John Phipps and his wife Margarita arranged for the home to be used to house British evacuees.

[1] By 1974, Bessemer Trust Company developed an expertise in wealth management that allowed it to take on other clients through the creation of a national bank headquartered in New York City.

First cousins Ogden Mills (Dinny) Phipps and Stewart Janney III's horse Orb won the 2013 Kentucky Derby.