HIGH POINT – A stretch of Interstate 74 in High Point has been dedicated as the Dave Phillips Highway in honor of the late High Point businessman, public servant and philanthropist.
The N.C. Board of Transportation unanimously approved a resolution in April to name I-75 between North Main Street and I-85 Business in honor of Phillips, who died in November 2022. N.C. Department of Transportation staff joined friends, family, colleagues and local government officials at the dedication ceremony to unveil the new highway signs.
“Dave was a true High Pointer — born, raised and deeply invested in this community throughout his whole life,” said longtime friend Pat Bassett during the ceremony at the String & Splinter Club in High Point. “He loved this town. He helped shape it, and he would be so honored and proud to know that a road here carries his name.”
Dave Phillips was born in High Point on May 11, 1942, and attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In the 1980s, he served on the N.C. Board of Transportation, where he helped advance the U.S. 311 Bypass, now part of I-74, and secured funding for the complete renovation of the High Point Train Depot. His public service continued at the state and national levels, including appointments as the N.C. Secretary of Commerce and U.S. Ambassador to Estonia.
“In business, in higher education, in local, state and federal government, Dave’s countless achievements are grounded in a skill for rallying great people around a great shared purpose, and then coaching and encouraging them for a great outcome,” said friend A.B. Henley. "This week’s dedication of the Dave Phillips Highway is a wonderfully appropriate expression of a much-deserved tribute to the legacy of our dear friend Dave Phillips.”
Phillips was active in his community as a member of the High Point United Way Tocqueville Society and Lillian Phillips Cancer Pavilion at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. He was also involved in many civic organizations, including the High Point Chamber of Commerce, the United Way, the N.C. Zoological Park Society, the N.C. Chamber of Commerce, Old Salem and the Reynolda House.
“He was one of the most upbeat people that you would ever want to meet. I barely even saw him without a smile,” said Mary Bogest, author of “Come On, America”, the biography that chronicles the life and legacy of Phillips. “Anyone who knows Dave knows that he loved people, he loved the City of High Point, he loved the State of North Carolina and he loved his country. But most of all, he loved his family.”