The Reverend Doctor Phillips was the son of Leon A. Sr. & Irene (Shuler) Phillips and husband of Marion (Overcash) Phillips. They were married on December 19, 1959. He was a graduate of Concordia Collegiate Institute in Bronxville, NY, Gettysburg College, and the Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia, PA. He was ordained to the Lutheran ministry in 1961. He received an honorary Doctorate of Divinity degree from Muhlenberg College in 1987 for his work in developing the Institute for Christian Jewish Understanding. He served congregations in East Bangor at the former Grace Lutheran Church, in Wilkes-Barre at the former St. Pauls Lutheran Church and St. Stephens Lutheran Church in Allentown. He was a two-time assistant to the bishop of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Synod under Bishop Wilson Touhsaent and Bishop Harold Weiss. During this time he also served on the Board of Directors of Lutheran Welfare Service of NE Pennsylvania, Lutheran Congregational Services and the Good Shepherd Home. He was a member and the appointed pastor of St. Matthews Lutheran Church in Allentown and was the founder and first director of Lutheran Disaster Response, a joint ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. In his years serving this ministry (1987-1998) he responded to more than 150 major disasters, oversaw rebuilding, counseling, and an extensive ministry by volunteers. He was also on the executive staff of the ELCA Division for Church in Society. He also served on the Board of Church World Service Disaster Response and the Interfaith Advisory Committee of the American Red Cross. He was released from other duties in 1975 to work with Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, helping with resettlement of refugees from Vietnam and Cambodia at Camp Pendleton, CA, Egland Air Force Base, FL, and Fort Indiantown Gap, PA. He frequently traveled to Asia and Europe and visited pastors and congregations in the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany). In Leipzig, Germany in 1990 he took part in demonstration marches that led to the unification of Germany. He retired in 1998 and served interim ministries at several Lutheran Churches in Allentown and Emmaus. He received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Lutheran Seminary at Philadelphia in May, 2012. At the time of his death he was serving as the appointed minister of St. Matthews Lutheran Church in Allentown. In a tribute to Reverend Doctor Phillips by Pastor Michael Stadie, he said, "his love and insight touched countless thousands of lives around the world. He brought hope to the hopeless and help to the helpless.... Thanks be to God for Leon's partnership in a multitude of ministries through these years; for his creativity, sensitivity, warmth, support, leadership, guidance; and for his personal friendship. We give thanks for his life, rejoice in his faith, and mourn his passing."