Phipps, Christopher, 1959-

Chris Phipps was born November 1, 1959 in Honolulu, Hawaii. He was homeschooled until the age of 12, when he went to boarding school in New England. After graduating high school in 1977, he moved to California and came out as gay. Phipps stopped attending college for a few years to regain his social life, but he returned and received his bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Utah in 1986.

While he was working with Carl Sagan as a research assistant during the extraterrestrial project SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), Phipps was convinced to continue on to law school. He was recruited to Las Vegas, Nevada by a law firm, and Phipps moved to the city in 1988.