Frank Fox, 92, history professor and expert on art
Frank Fox didn't speak a word of English when he immigrated to the United States from his native Poland as a teenager in 1937. But he got into Central High School two years later and spent the rest of his life learning, writing, teaching, and translating. He was fluent in seven languages.
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Frank Fox didn't speak a word of English when he immigrated to the United States from his native Poland as a teenager in 1937. But he got into Central High School two years later and spent the rest of his life learning, writing, teaching, and translating. He was fluent in seven languages.
Dr. Fox, 92, who lived at the Quadrangle in Haverford, died Tuesday, Aug. 2, of complications of a stroke at Bryn Mawr Hospital.
"I could spend hours telling you about him," said his son, Julian.
During World War II, Dr. Fox served as an Army translator in France and Germany. He didn't speak German, but Yiddish was close enough to get him the job, his son said.
"I always thought it was funny that these Nazis were surrendering to someone who was telling them, 'Put down your guns,' in Yiddish," Julian Fox said.
After the war, Dr. Fox earned a doctorate in history at the University of Delaware and soon began a career teaching European history. His last position was at West Chester University, where he was named professor emeritus after retiring. Along the way, Dr. Fox taught night classes at St. Joseph's University, and during the day at Temple University.
His writings appeared in diverse publications, including French Historical Studies, Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, East European Jewish Affairs, Print, and the World and I.
In September 1974, one month after Richard M. Nixon resigned the presidency, Dr. Fox penned an article for New York magazine titled, "Why Nixon Did Himself In: A Behavioral Examination of His Need to Fail." The cover was an illustration of the 37th president hanging himself.
Dr. Fox was an expert on post-World War II Polish poster art, which often contained coded anticommunist themes. Drexel University acquired his poster collection and has held several exhibits. He was a guest curator for a 1996 Polish poster exhibit at the Katonah Museum of Art in Westchester County, N.Y., and lectured in 1998 at the National Museum in Warsaw.
"If you knew what you were looking for, there were indications of their dislike of this repressive regime," his son said. "These posters became world-famous for their subtlety in protesting communism."
Dr. Fox also wrote a book in 1999 on the Katyn Forest Massacre, and wrote poetry for a cantata based on a controversial wartime memoir that he translated and edited, Am I A Murderer?: Testament of a Jewish Ghetto Policeman.
"I'm very proud of him," his son said. "He was a wonderful, wonderful man."
In addition to his son, Dr. Fox is survived by his wife of 70 years, Anne; daughter Nina; and four grandchildren.
Services were Sunday, Aug. 6. The Lower Merion Symphony Orchestra will honor Dr. Fox with a memorial concert at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 23, at Harriton High School, 600 N. Ithan Ave., Rosemont.
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