A Philanthropist and a Gentleman

Everette Phillips rose from ordinary beginnings to found Seachest, which supplied food, beverages and more for Carnival Cruise Lines. He endowed a scholarship for local students through the MFOS program. He is shown here aboard the MS Carnival Sensation in 1993.

A native of Alachua County, Everette Phillips (BSBA ’58) was a visionary force behind the fun elements in Carnival Cruise Lines’ “Fun Ships.” Now, his generous legacy gift to UF is funding the educations of students from North Central Florida through the Machen Florida Opportunity Scholarship (MFOS) program.

“All throughout my father’s career, he made a positive impact on thousands of people’s lives,” said daughter Donna Phillips. “He came from humble beginnings, Depression-era parents. He was working in a High Springs shoe store when the owner rallied local support to get him a Rotary Club scholarship to attend UF. This endowment is his way of paying that back to his community.”

Named for the donor and his late wife, Diane, the Everette and Diane Phillips Endowed Scholarship supports high-achieving first-generation college students from Alachua, Columbia and Gilchrist Counties through the MFOS program.

Like the giant cruise ships he ran food and beverage (F&B) services for, Phillips left a mighty wake behind him in the many lives he touched in his 86 years.

“He never forgot a name and always thanked every crew member he met,” said Carnival senior cruise director John Heald in April 2020, when Phillips passed.

A master of thoughtful details, Phillips (shown here, center, with family) celebrated his 11-month-old daughter Donna’s first cruise in 1966 by issuing a “First Ocean Voyage” certificate. Signed by crew members, it lists the MS Ariadne’s passage from Port Everglades to Nassau to Freeport and back again.

“He was a gentleman,” said Carnival sales exec Maurice Zarmati. “He had an inquisitive mind and a very fair approach. When he spoke to you, he looked you in the eye … and always made you feel comfortable.”

“He was a special human being, and everybody loved him, everybody,” Zarmati added.

As the founder of Seachest, the company that provided F&B, gift shop and photo services for Carnival for more than 20 years, Phillips oversaw many innovations of modern-day cruising: casual Lido Cafe dining, parades and dancing (“Hot, Hot, Hot” conga lines), bon voyage gifts and wedding services. His eye for detail extended to installing the first onboard escalators to facilitate split-level dining on two decks.

“He invented that so waiters wouldn’t have to carry big, heavy trays up the stairs,” said Donna. “He thought of everything.”

After his retirement in 1997, Phillips continued to travel the world. On a 2017 trip to Easter Island, Phillips told his daughter he wanted to give a substantial portion of his estate to UF.

“He said it was really important to him that the endowment went to certain counties [in Florida] and it benefitted kids who were in the same position he had been in, financially, all those years ago,” said Donna.

“He told me: ‘I really want to help those kids for whom it is nearly impossible ever to go to college.’”

To learn more about ways you, like Everette Phillips, can help make the dream of a UF education possible for deserving students, please contact UF's Office of Estate & Gift Planning at giftplanning@uff.ufl.edu or 352-392-5512, toll free at 866-317-4143.