Phil Gordon was born Oct. 18, 1943 in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, where he lived on the waterfront along with his grandmother, Diana Lynch, who he loved dearly. Phil went home to be with the Lord on Friday, March 27, 2026, at the age of 82.

Phil devoted more than 50 years to coaching tennis, mostly to Greater Hartford youth. Around the nation, he became known as the tennis instructor from CT who produced elite junior players who could compete with kids from any state.

On Feb. 21, 1981, Phil married Roxalina “Roxy” Rawls, who a year earlier had begun tennis lessons under Phil. Two years later, Roxy gave birth to their only child, Alexis. Phil adored Alexis and instantly placed a tennis racket in her hands. Alexis was a fast study and soaked up her father’s commands. She ended up a three-time All American at the University of Florida, where she was part of a national championship winning team before going on to play professionally.

Phil would coach kids from any walk of life as long as they demonstrated discipline and wanted to improve. He wanted to get kids off the streets and into something positive. Hundreds of those he trained went on to play tennis in college in pursuit of the best education they could get. Some of his players ended up at schools like Brown, Princeton, Stamford, University of Southern California and University of Virginia.

Growing up in St. Thomas, Phil discovered tennis as a ballboy at the island’s resort hotels. He came to the States in the early 1960s, stopping first in NYC before making his way to Hartford, because a buddy lived here.

Phil found work as a tennis pro, including a job at In Town Tennis, run out of the 50,000-square-foot drill hall at the State Armory in Hartford. By the late 1970s, Phil had become owner of In Town Tennis and ran it under Tennis Unlimited Inc., a youth program he opened with friends Lewis E. Randell, William “Bill” Brockman and Lamont “Monty” Aheart.

At its peak, Tennis Unlimited hosted free summer youth tennis camps at parks across Hartford, including Keney, Elizabeth and Pope Park. Through Tennis Unlimited’s Summer Youth Program that ran consistently between 1970s and early 2000s, Phil impacted thousands of Hartford families and youth.

Phil built relationships with powerful figures as a way to get support and funding for the kids in his program. His network of influential politicians, educators and insurance executives included former Connecticut Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr., as Phil’s youth teams seemed to win the Governor’s Cup tennis tournament year after year. That relationship paid off when some generals tried to kick Phil’s program out of the state armory.

Phil developed a number of players who would go on to be ranked at or near the top of their age group in the USTA New England Junior region. For instance, Alexis was No. 1 in the under-14 division when she was 12. She was ranked No. 3 nationally in the under-12 division when she was 9.

Phil developed a very special bond with some of the parents of the kids he instructed. Later in his life as his tennis program began winding down and the funding drying up, it was the parents of his former players – people like Rollo and Rochelle Jones, Carlos Salmon Sr. and Ruth Krems – along with members of the Greater Hartford Tennis Community who supported Phil as lifelong friends, along with his daughter Alexis and her husband Michael King.

Phil loved talking about the achievements of his former players, like Carlos Salmon Jr., who landed a coveted scholarship to USC as a result of working with Phil and getting his serve to 142 mph. T.A. Niles played at Weaver High School in the 1970s before joining the marines. After the military, Niles returned to the area and worked with Phil before earning a scholarship to the University of Hartford, where he led the Hawks to two undefeated seasons in four years.

Phil met Iona Lord in 2000 but by 2014 she was losing a battle with cancer. Before she died, Phil promised Iona that he would continue to push three of her and husband Almon’s children – Dayna, Melissa and Matthew – towards receiving the best education they could get. They each attended the Kingswood Oxford High School in West Hartford. Dayna would graduate from Brown, Melissa from Stanford and Matthew from Virginia. Almon, who remarried, and wife Cynthia supported Phil the rest of his life.

Community institutions also recognized Phil’s contributions. In 2020, he received the Humanitarian Award from the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Commission, Gov. Ned Lamont and the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities. In 2024, the Office of the Mayor in Hartford awarded Phil a proclamation for his services to the youth of the community.

Phil is survived by his daughter Alexis King and son-in-law Michael King and his granddaughters Imani Kayla King and Maniah Jaydin King.