INDUSTRY NEWS
Hillard Roland Phillips, Founder of High Times Beauty Products, Passes Away at 83 Reported by Lafayette Jones of Urban Call
OTC Beauty Magazine is incredibly sad to report that Hillard “Phil”
Phillips always knew he wanted to work for himself. He came one
August 22. He was 83. The longtime resident of Sparks, Nevada,
plagued him since he first began shaving as a teen: ingrown hair
Roland Phillips, founder of High Times Beauty Products, died on
was born and raised in Joplin, Missouri. He attended Pittsburg
State University and began his foundation for numerous academic achievements and extracurricular activities, including finding the
Gamma Chi Chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity at PSU. Phillips
continued
his
education at Roosevelt University
in
Illinois
and San Diego State
University in California, earning
bachelor’s
step closer to that in 1972 when he solved a problem that had and razor bumps. He immediately realized millions of people were
suffering from this problem that previously had no viable solution. He changed career tracks with his invention.
He became a recognized expert and leader in the ethnic hair
care and cosmetics industry. He is credited with creating a whole new section in all shaving sections throughout the world with his invention of High Time Bump Stopper Razor Bump Treatment cream for people with razor bumps and razor rash.
degrees in pharmacy and
chemistry and a master’s degree
chemistry.
in
analytical
After his youngest son, Mike, joined the University of Nevada
(UNR) football program, he and Ellen traveled the nation attending their son’s home and away games. While attending numerous
home games in Reno, Nevada and making friends, they decided He married his first wife
in Chicago and had his Hillard Roland Phillips Founder of High Times Beauty Products
first child Kellie. Two
years later, his dream
to relocate their business to Reno and buy a home in beautiful
Sparks. Mike would soon join the family business full-time after completing his time at UNR. Phillips and Ellen and their son Mike have run their company in the North Valley for nearly 20 years.
of moving to California became a reality. He
moved his young family
to San Diego after accepting a position as a nuclear chemist with General Dynamics. A year later, his second child Madeline was
born, and his third child Matthew was born seven years later. When he divorced, he continued to live in San Diego briefly. He took a job in Iowa as director of pharmaceutical control, where he met his
Phillips was a brilliant, generous, gregarious, kind, and loving
family man who lit up a room with his deep booming voice and infectious, resonating laugh. It was indeed a blessing for those of
us lucky enough to call him son, husband, father, or friend. He is loved beyond measure and will be dearly missed.
soul mate and second wife, Ellen. Yet the place he fell in love with
He is preceded in death by his parents, Charlotte and Hillard
and he moved to Orange County, California. There, his fourth child
four children and three grandchildren; Kellie Phillips and Matthew
when he was 12 years old on a family vacation beckoned him back, Mike was born. While he was an extremely driven man, he was also a true family man raising three kids with Ellen and encouraging a fourth to move in after high school while attending college.
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OTC Beauty Magazine October 2021
Phillips. He is survived by his wife of 43 years, Ellen, and by his Phillips of Phoenix, Arizona; Madeline Kimmich and her husband
Greg of Orlando, Florida and Mike Phillips and his wife Ashlee and their three children, Kaya, Haegen and Mallory of Reno, Nevada.
