Lawrence Fox Obituary

Fox, Lawrence Nestor August 24, 1934 July 5, 2018. Larry was born in Chicago at Passavant Memorial Hospital (now Northwestern). He and his family (father Sam, mother Genevieve, brothers Stanley and Steve) moved to South Bend, Indiana in 1942 where Sam studied at Notre Dame for his PhD in accounting law. Years later Larry fondly remembered South Bend grammar school, family vacations and his dedicated teachers as he reminisced about "growing up in this wonderful place". Education was always number one in the Fox home and after the family moved back to Chicago (Park Ridge) Larry received top grades at Maine Township High School finishing first in the State of Illinois Latin competition. He knew at an early age that he wanted to attend Harvard but he also applied at Princeton and with near perfect grades was accepted at both. He chose Harvard, earning an A.B. degree in government. He then attended medical school at the University of Illinois and graduate school in Philadelphia at University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business. His career in finance began at Raytheon in Boston and Washington DC, transitioning to Einstein Yeshiva Hospital in New York and Altschuler Melvoin and Glasser in Chicago. In his retirement years he became a popular volunteer for the Art Institute of Chicago Film Center where he studied and discussed in detail hidden meanings and multiple plots of foreign and domestic films. In addition, he devised a cost-effective method of gathering and utilizing volunteers for a large part of the work at the Film Center. Larry was a subscriber and enthusiastic classical music fan at many organizations for over 50 years but faithfully at both Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Lyric Opera of Chicago. Later at Lyric's ticket office he became a full-time volunteer, was honored in 1992-93 as Volunteer of the Year and was a devoted member of the Lyric family until his recent death. Larry's hobbies were many. His top travel destinations included St Lucia, Dominica, London, Paris and Provence. His top philosopher was Socrites; favorite artist Henri Matisse; best opera Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Cosi fan tutte; respected film director Jean-Luc Godard; and while Irving Berlin's famous "Holiday Inn" was viewed at least once a year for 75 years, Larry's favorite film was Michaelangelo Antonioni's trilogy L'Avventura (1960), La Notte (1961) and L'Eclisse (1962). In the final years Larry was co-authoring a book on film which he hoped would be published posthumously at a later date. At his death he said life was basically outlined in the famous Shaker song "Simple Gifts": "'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free, 'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be, And when we find ourselves in the place just right, 'Twill be in the valley of love and delight." Lawrence Nestor Fox was a renaissance man knowledgeable about politics, history, philosophy, literature and the arts. He will be dearly missed by all who knew and loved him and learned from him. He is survived by many family and friends. Services have already been held.