Philip Strong Humphrey was born February 26, 1926, in Hibbing, Minnesota. He received his B.A. from Amherst College in 1949, his Masters from University of Michigan in 1951, and his Ph.D. from Michigan four years later. For two years he worked in the Museum of Zoology at University of Michigan.

In 1957 Humphrey joined the staff of the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University as the Assistant Curator of Orinthology and Assistant Professor of Zoology. In June 1962, Humphrey moved to the Smithsonian Institute to become the Curator of the Division of Birds. From 1965 to 1967, Humphrey served as the Chairman of the Department of Vertebrate Zoology at the National Museum in the Smithsonian.

In 1967, Humphrey left the Smithsonian to join the staff at the University of Kansas as the Director of the Museum of Natural History. As Director, Humphrey oversaw two expansions of the Natural History Museum (Dyche Hall). The first doubled the size of the building, while the second provided safer storage for volatile specimens. The Museum also took control of several other natural history collections on campus, including the R.L. McGregor Herbarium, the Snow Hall Entomology Museum, and the Museum of Invertebrate Paleontology.

For two years Humphrey also served as the Chairman of the Department of Zoology, and continued to collaborate with the Smithsonian on research projects. During his career, Humphrey published nearly 100 articles, advised on dozens of committees, and was a member of numerous scientific societies. He retired in 1995.