Owen Phillips grew up in Sydney, Australia, and following a distinguished record at a State high school and in the final NSW school examinations, he enrolled in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Sydney in 1948. In the third year, he transferred to the Faculty of Science to do more advanced courses in Mathematics and Physics (with the idea of going back to Engineering after one year and qualifying for a Science degree on the way). Owen did so well, however, that he went on to do a fourth year in Mathematics and graduated with First Class Honours.