Pioneer Henderson surgeon, businessman Phillips dies

Daniela Mohor

Monday, Nov. 26, 2001 | 9:03 a.m.

Dr. Lorne Phillips believed health should not be just for the wealthy. The surgeon treated all of his patients equally, regardless of their ability to pay.

"He always said upfront, this is gonna cost you x hundred dollars, and if you don't have them, we'll do it anyway because you need it," his wife, Agnes Phillips, said. "His family was his first love, but surgery sometimes had to take the top priority."

Phillips, one of Henderson's first doctors, died Friday at his home on Fairway Road. He was 88.

A memorial service was scheduled at 3 p.m. today at Palm Mortuary, 800 S. Boulder Hwy.

A general surgeon and businessman, Phillips co-founded one of the first clinics in Henderson and developed many of the city's properties, including the Lake Mead Business Center and three homes in his residential neighborhood.

He also served the community through different civic and professional organizations. He was a charter member of the Henderson Rotary Club, belonged to different Masonic groups and was once the president of the Clark County Medical Society.

He was remembered by his family and friends as a quiet, knowledgeable and generous man, who loved to read about different cultures, to travel and to entertain.

"He was well thought of by the community. He was very conscientious, he was a good doctor," said Dr. Karl Hazeltine, who worked with him for 13 years.

Originally from Canada, Phillips and his wife moved to the Las Vegas Valley in 1950, attracted by the desert and the sunny weather.

When they first arrived, many of the thousand townsite homes the federal government had built during World War II for workers at the magnesium plants were empty.

"At the end of the war the houses here were available for $30 a month. So we moved in quickly," Agnes Phillips said.

Soon after their arrival, Phillips co-founded the Henderson Clinic, a group partnership practice, which disbanded in the early 1970s. In 1966 he left the clinic to work at the University of Hawaii in Okinawa as the head of the Department of Surgery.

A year later he returned to Henderson and worked at various places, including Sunrise Hospital Medical Center and Titanium Metals, where he was the company physician.

A few years later he retired to focus on his businesses in property management, enjoy his family and his free time in his cabin at Mount Charleston or his boat on Lake Mead.

One of Phillips' main goals in life, Agnes Phillips said, was to help people. That is why his commitment to his patients or students often went beyond his duty.

After returning from Hawaii, for instance, Phillips mailed medical journals to Okinawa for years in order to help the university's medical library stay up-to-date, his wife said.

In addition to his wife, Phillips is survived by his daughter, Lorna E. Motte of Salem, Ore.; two sons, Keith C. Phillips of Reno and Roy A. Phillips of Henderson; seven grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.