He is known for the Flex-Foot brand of artificial foot and limbs that he created,[2] and for his charity work for amputees.
[3] An amputee himself, having lost a leg below the knee at age 21, Phillips was motivated by the limitations of then-existing artificial limbs to attend the Northwestern University Medical School Prosthetic-Orthotic Center.
After graduation, he worked as a biomedical design engineer at the University of Utah[2] before starting his own company, Flex-Foot Incorporated in 1984.
[3][4] In 1999 he established Second Wind, a non-profit organization to provide inexpensive and resistant prostheses to amputees around the world, and is now working to create a prosthetic leg for land mine victims in developing countries.
[3] In 1998 he received the Brian Blatchford Memorial Prize from the International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics.