Although Norm's principle interests and work areas were in large scale dynamics and numerical weather prediction, his early work also exerted a strong influence on the development of convective scale numerical modeling. The success of his initial general circulation simulations suggested (to this contemporary graduate student) that a similar procedure could be pursued to elucidate the cumulative effects of cumulus clouds on environments in which they are primary contributing elements, especially the maritime tropics. For various reasons, especially the need to use 3-dimensional simulations to deal properly with turbulence, that approach took much longer than anticipated, and is perhaps still incomplete. Phillips's discovery of non-linear computational instability, followed by Arakawa's solution of the problem, was also a key contribution to development of numerical cloud modeling studies. The early development of convective cloud simulations, particularly as influenced by Phillips's work, will be outlined.