John Calhoun Phillips (November 13, 1870 – June 25, 1943) was an American politician who served as the third governor of the state of

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States. It is the list of U.S. states and territories by area, 6th largest and the list of U.S. states and territories by population, 14 ...

from January 7, 1929 to January 5, 1931. Born in 1870 in

Vermont, Illinois Vermont is a village in Fulton County, Illinois, United States. The population was 667 at the 2010 census, down from 792 at the 2000 census. History The village was founded in 1835 by James and Joseph Crail. A post office was established in 1837. ...

, Phillips graduated from Hedding College in 1893 and passed the bar in Illinois. He moved to Arizona in 1898 where he practiced private law while at the same time working as a construction worker to earn a living. He helped to build the

state capitol building This is a list of state and territorial capitols in the United States, the building or complex of buildings from which the government of each U.S. state, the District of Columbia and the organized territories of the United States, exercise ...

that he would later occupy as governor. He served as a probate judge from 1902 to 1912 before being elected to the Arizona House of Representatives and later, the Arizona Senate. Phillips became governor in 1929 during the Great Depression. He was instrumental in the creation of a free county library system, the Colorado River Commission, the State Bureau of Criminal Identification and the Arizona Game and Fish Department. During his governorship, he refused to raise the salary for the state judges for political reasons. Considered an unattractive man with a sense of humor, Phillips referred to himself as "the ugliest man in Arizona." Phillips died in 1943 from a heart attack while fishing on Lake Mary near

Flagstaff, Arizona Flagstaff ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Coconino County in northern Arizona, in the southwestern United States. In 2019, the city's estimated population was 75,038. Flagstaff's combined metropolitan area has an estimated population ...

. He was entombed at

Greenwood/Memory Lawn Mortuary & Cemetery Greenwood Memory Lawn Mortuary & Cemetery is the official name given to a cemetery located at 2300 West Van Buren Street in Phoenix, Arizona owned by Dignity Memorial. The cemetery, which resulted as a merger of two historical cemeteries, Greenwo ...

in Phoenix.

Sources

Phoenix-Greenwood Memory Lawn Cemetery-John C

* * Sobel, Robert, and John Raimo, eds. Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1789–1978, Vol. 1, Westport, Conn.; Meckler Books, 1978. 4 vols. * Goff, John F. Arizona Biographical Dictionary. Black Mountain Press. Cave Creek, Arizona 1983. p. 263 {{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, John Calhoun 1870 births 1943 deaths Republican Party governors of Arizona People from Vermont, Illinois