Robert Y. Fox

HANOVER, NH — Robert Y. Fox, an eminent lawyer and mentor, died Wednesday, December 11, 2019, at Kendal at Hanover. The son of Edward B. Fox and Amelia Yale Fox, he was born in 1933 in Dobbs Ferry, New York. After attending local schools, Bob graduated from Deerfield Academy, Amherst College (class of 1955), and Harvard Law School (JD, 1958). Bob often expressed his gratitude for the scholarships he received and for the constant loving support of his parents.

After a few years with a Wall Street law firm, a period interrupted by a tour of duty with the Army, Bob moved into corporate law at General Foods Corporation. When he retired in 1989, he was a Vice President, Secretary and Associate General Counsel at the company. In 1976, he married Kathy Naeff. They lived in South Salem, New York, near the Connecticut border, until Bob retired, when they moved to Hanover, New Hampshire. They remained in the Upper Valley except for two years in Tucson, Arizona, where Bob and Kathy had spent two winter months for several years. In Tucson Bob was a board member of the Southeast Arizona Land Trust.

Bob served as a board member and chair of a number of Upper Valley nonprofit organizations. He was a board member of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Alliance; Chair of the Upper Valley Land Trust (and former chair of its Endowment Investment Committee); a board member and chair of West Central Behavioral Health Care. In addition, Bob spent seven years on the Kendal at Hanover board, serving on several vital committees. Later, as a resident of Kendal, where he and Kathy moved in 2010, Bob was an active member of the Gifts and Bequests Committee. For nine years Bob also mentored small businesses as a member of the Lebanon chapter of SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives).

Bob was a longtime member of the Board of Trustees of the Vermont Institute of Natural Sciences (VINS) in Quechee, Vermont, and was, for many years, a member of its Finance Committee. He and Kathy loved barred owls and were supporters, inparticular,of VINS’ Center for Wild Bird Rehabilitation. Before back problems developed in the late 1990s, Bob was an avid hiker, wilderness backpacker (California Sierras), and enjoyed downhill and cross-country skiing and snowshoeing.

Kathy died in 2014. Bob is survived by his son Gregory Fox, of North Reading, Massachusetts; a granddaughter, Kiersten; and a sister Margaret Fox Hutchinson of Bowie, Maryland. Bob also leaves his extended family, Elena Ciobanu and Denis Corja of Lebanon, New Hampshire, who visited Bob weekly and whose sixteen-month-old son Stefan called Bob “Grandpa.”

In lieu of flowers, gifts may be made to VINS, 149 Natures Way, Quechee, Vermont 05059. A memorial service will be held on January 19, 2020, at 2:00 PM at Kendal.