Former Congressman Jon D. Fox remembered as selfless public servant

CHELTENHAM » More than 500 people filled the sanctuary at Congregation Adath Jeshurun on Tuesday to pay their respects to former Republican Congressman Jon D. Fox.

Fox, 70, who died from cancer on Sunday, Feb. 11, touched numerous people in and out of politics. Retired Rabbi Seymour Rosenbloom, who led the service, said Fox’s death had “profoundly saddened” him and many others. Cantor Howard Glantz recited traditional prayers and psalms.

Fox grew up in Cheltenham and lived in Abington as an adult. He is the only congressman in the Cheltenham High School Hall of Fame, Rosenbloom said. Fox was “not a politician. He was a rare thing. He was a public servant … a champion, indefatigable in helping others.”

Rabbi Rachel Kobrin remembered Fox’s kindness and “warm, optimistic spirit.”

“Jon Fox made people feel good,” she said. He was “kind and warm and positive.” She told his son, Will, that his dad had been “so proud” of him at his bar mitzvah last year.

Fox’s brother, Larry Fox, said he had always worked hard to help other people.

“When Jon got to heaven, they thought he was 100 years old,” said Larry Fox. “In heaven, they judge people in heaven by the number of lawn signs they placed.”

That remark drew laughter from the mourners.

“Jon was uniquely unique,” he said. “There are no comparables.”

He was irrepressible as a child and got into trouble at school, so much so that their mother “had to become president of the PTA,” he said. At Penn State University, he was a cheerleader and wore the Nittany Lion costume. He remained a cheerleader, encouraging others all his life.

“He was really the world’s greatest social worker,” said Larry Fox. “He was absolutely committed to all humanity.”

His brother always remembered people’s names, he said. When he was swornin for his second term in Congress, representing the 13th Congressional District, there was a “huge room” full of people. Jon Fox, who had an uncanny knack for remembering names, mentioned each of them by name and occupation, said Larry Fox.

One of Jon Fox’s accomplishments as a Montgomery County commissioner was to found the county Health Department. And as a congressman, he bucked the party and the formidable Speaker Newt Gingrich to ensure funding for Legal Services, the public defenders, by enlisting 12 GOP colleagues to vote with the Democrats. That move may have cost him re-election, Larry Fox said.

Michael Fires, a nephew, said that he and his mother were once waiting to meet his uncle at a deli and thought that he was late. However, Fox was on time, he was just greeting and glad-handing constituents in the doorway.

It was at that deli Jon Fox gave him some important advice: “It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice,” he said. When his uncle was in high school and it snowed, he would call radio station KYW and, using his deepest voice, pretend to be the superintendent of the Cheltenham School District, telling the station that school was canceled that day. Eventually, someone caught on and school superintendents were required to give a code to declare a snow day, Fires said.

Emily Fox, a niece, said her late uncle began prepping her for the SAT when she was 9 years old, teaching her vocabulary words. He would also give family members handpainted signs for every occasion, then plaques, she said. And he never forgot a birthday. “Nothing meant more to Jon than family, but his constituents were family, too,” she said. “If it was important to you, it was important to him. … There was no one else like him.”

Although he was afraid to fly, he came to her wedding in California and told her he would not have missed it, she said.

Fox’s son, Will, spoke briefly as did his wife, Judi. She said the 34 years she spent with her husband were the best years of her life. Fox would “travel around the world to help other people,” she said.

Rosenbloom told Will, “He did consider it a privilege that you were holding his hand when he took his last breath.”

“Jon leaves an awful hole in our lives and hearts, doesn’t he?” Rosenbloom asked.

Judi and Jon Fox had met while working for his father at Fox Brothers, but when their romance came to light, her father said that one of them would have to leave, Rosenbloom said. Jon Fox chose to leave the firm and launched his political career. A romantic, Fox proposed to his wife from a podium before a crowd of people on Valentine’s Day.

After the service, Dr. Robert Sklaroff, Fox’s friend and physician, told a reporter that he was surprised and amazed that none of the speakers had mentioned how humble Fox had always been.

Fox served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. He was a Montgomery County commissioner, a Pennsylvania state legislator, an Abington Township commissioner and a Montgomery County assistant district attorney before serving in Congress. He spent six years in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, and his coffin was draped with a United States flag.

A graduate of Penn State University and the Delaware Law School, he practiced law in Elkins Park after leaving elected office. But Fox remained active in local politics, charities, community affairs and his synagogue.

In addition to his wife, Judith Wilbert Fox, and his son, William L. Fox II, he is survived by his older brother, Lawrence Fox, and sister, Caren Fox Fires, and nieces and nephews. He was the son of the late William L. Fox and the late Elainne Fox.

In lieu of flowers, donations in his name may be made to The American Cancer Society or Congregation Adath Jeshurun.