He was born on September 27, 1839 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, the son of Henry and Hannah Phipps, emigrants from England. In 1845 the family moved to Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, where they became next-door neighbors of the Carnegie family.
In his Autobiography, Andrew Carnegie says that his mother often added $4. 00 a week to the family income by binding shoes for Henry Phipps's father, who was a master shoemaker.
Henry's education in the public school was supplemented by the influence of his mother, who inspired in him a fondness for poetry.
His first regular employment, when he was thirteen years old, was in a jewelry store; then for a time he worked for a news and merchandise dealer. At seventeen he obtained work with Dilworth & Bidwell, dealers in iron and spikes, the Pittsburgh agents of the DuPont powder mills. At first he was office boy and clerk, and later bookkeeper, which position he held until 1861.
In 1859 he became a silent partner in the firm of Kloman Brothers, manufacturers of scales, and in 1861, borrowing $800, purchased a one-sixth interest in the firm, which was reorganized in 1863 as Kloman & Phipps; he kept the books and acquired practical experience with iron forgings and the manufacturing of axles. When the demand for their products created by the Civil War had lessened, Kloman & Phipps found it expedient to join forces with Andrew Carnegie, and a company, the Union Iron Mills, was formed in 1867. From this time until they both retired in 1901, Phipps was an associate of Carnegie.
When in 1874, when Carnegie, foreseeing the importance of steel, formed the Edgar Thomson Steel Company, Ltd. , for the manufacture of steel exclusively, Phipps took an interest. He was a partner in Carnegie Brothers & Company Ltd. (1881), in Carnegie, Phipps & Company (1886), and in the Carnegie Steel Company, Ltd. , recorded in Pittsburgh in 1892 with a capital of $25, 000, 000, which embraced all of the possessions acquired since the days of the Kloman forge. In 1899 Carnegie, wishing to retire, gave Phipps and Henry C. Frick an option on his interest in the Carnegie Steel Company, Ltd. , but even with the aid of W. H. Moore, Phipps and Frick were unable to raise the funds necessary to effect the purchase. In 1900, the Carnegie Steel Company, Ltd. , was reorganized as the Carnegie Company, and a year later, with all its subsidiaries, passed into the hands of the United States Steel Corporation.
After his retirement Phipps devoted himself to the utilization of his wealth for humanitarian purposes. Among his early gifts were public baths, reading rooms, playgrounds, and conservatories in the parks of Allegheny and Pittsburgh. He also made possible the sixth International Congress on Tuberculosis held in 1908 in Washington.
He died just before his ninety-first birthday at his home, "Bonnie Blink, " Great Neck.
Henry Phipps Jr. was the partner in Carnegie Steel Company, his contribution to the industry was the steering of a discreet financial course. The fact that his firm came safely through the fluctuations of the post-war iron trade, the establishment of the new steel business, and the business depressions and panics of the period is due in no small part to his careful and accomplished management. He was responsible for the discovery of a use for scale, hitherto a waste product. His philanthropies of greatest interest were foundations for combating tuberculosis and mental disease. He established the Henry Phipps Institute for the Study, Treatment, and Prevention of Tuberculosis in Philadelphia. He also founded the Phipps Tuberculosis Dispensary at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Henry Phipps Psychiatric Clinic of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. In addition to these foundations Phipps gave $1, 000, 000 for the erection of sanitary tenement houses in New York City.
His well-preserved constitution carried him through more than ninety years of life. He was naturally cautious and disliked change of any kind.
He married, on February 6, 1872, Anne Childs Shaffer, the daughter of a Pittsburgh manufacturer, and they had three sons and two daughters.
