James P. ”Jim” Fox, who was The Cavalier Daily’s Business Manager 1979-80, died on November 30, 2012 at his home in Seattle, WA. He was 54.
A Celebration of Life event will be held in Houston, TX at the Rainbow Lodge, on Saturday, March 9, 2013 from noon to 4 p.m. For more information about attending the celebration and making memorial donations, or to share memories of Jim, please visit the online memorial site, http://rememberjimfox.com/.
Jim was born on April 10, 1958 in Cambridge, MD, and grew up in the Philadelphia, PA suburbs. He was a 1980 graduate of the University’s McIntire School, and after college he pursued a career in accounting and business management. For nine years he served as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the Menninger Clinic in Houston, TX.
Jim, always gregarious, loved to reminisce about his time at The Cavalier Daily. He especially enjoyed recounting his memories of the April 1979 confrontation between The Cavalier Daily and the University’s administration over the paper’s refusal to accept the authority of the Media Board established by the Board of Visitors.
Before University President Frank L. Hereford Jr. made good on his ultimatum that permission for the CD to use University space and equipment would be withdrawn if the paper declined to recognize the Media Board’s jurisdiction, Jim had made provisions with The Daily Progress to use that paper’s facilities. Consequently, when Hereford evicted The Cavalier Daily from its space on Newcomb Hall’s 5th floor, the CD staff decamped to publish from The Daily Progress’s offices. Jim, who had been part of The Cavalier Daily’s production staff before he was elected to the Managing Board, delighted in describing how the staff had disabled the paper’s production system before departing, to thwart the University Journal’s potential use of the machines, if the University’s administration were to give the CD’s offices to the rival student newspaper.
Jim enjoyed baseball, travelling, his dogs, music and volunteer work. He was the Board Chair of Bayou City Performing Arts, and a supporter of the work of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC).
Survivors include Jim’s brothers Steve and Doug, his niece and nephews Katy, Stephen, Christopher and Andrew, his sisters-in-law Maryann and Phyllis, and his long-term partner James Barrett.