Obituary of Thomas E. Fox
Thomas Eugene Fox, born July 16th, 1939, was the second youngest of ten children born to Joseph and Mayme Fox. His childhood was spent on a small farm in the Wayland Cohocton area of upstate New York where he learned the virtues of honest work and dedication that served him well for the remainder of his life.
Tom’s agrarian values served him well as he moved into adulthood. He worked three jobs simultaneously. First as a bowling alley employee, next as a gas station clerk, and finally as an aide at the Craig Colony home for the mentally disabled. It was this astonishing adaptability that would later earn him the nickname “Tinker Tom” among his friends and loved ones. In addition, he joined the United States Army in 1960 and drove tanks during the Berlin Crisis. He received an honorable discharge in 1966 for his military service.
It was Tom’s relationship with Miss Alice Conrad that marked the beginning of a new chapter in his life. They married in 1962 and had two children. Robert Fox and Susan Fox (now Susan Shepard). Though they eventually divorced, they remained friends until Alice lost her battle with cancer in 2009.
No stranger to tragedy, Tom’s life was marked by trials that would have been daunting to all but the most formidable men. His daughter suffered a bicycle injury at the age of 15 that would leave her paralyzed from the waist down. He spent every free moment with her through her recovery and struggled with not being able to help or fix the injury to his little girl. He did all this while maintaining a trick-shift job for the Eastman Kodak company’s chemical processing plant and maintaining a record of perfect attendance during his 29 years of service. This was a hallmark of his personality. No matter how busy he became, he would always find the time for the people who were most important to him.
After retiring from Eastman Kodak in his 50s, Tom could have made the choice to finally settle down and kick his feet up, but instead he chose to invest his time on more charitable pursuits. Through the two parishes he attended (St. Josephs of Wayland and Good Shepherd of Henrietta) he found ways to help countless people. He cleaned and renovated the churches, transported donated food to food pantries, participated in faith sharing groups, built homes for a church-based Habitat for Humanity project, and did visitation ministry. It was through this visitation that he first met Virginia “Ginny” Bruegger.
Meeting Ginny proved to be one of the most joyful and serendipitous moments of Tom’s life. Both parties had been long in mourning after the loss of a spouse and it was fate and faith that brought them together. They married on May 20th, 2011 and enjoyed 9 wonderful years of marriage together. It is thanks to Ginny and all his loving family that Tom’s final years were the happiest years of his life.
Thomas Passed away July 12, 2020. Predeceased by his wife Alice Merkel nee Conrad. Survived by his wife Mary Virginia Fox; children, Robert A. (Opal) Fox, Susan M. (Mark) Shepard; grandchildren, Carrie, Jacob, and Allison Fox; siblings, Roz Stoffle, Clara Marks, Harold Fox; step children, Lynn (Mark) Kulzer, Robert Bruegger, Karen (Tom) Spearman, Debbie Bruegger; several nieces, nephews and step grandchildren.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, services will be held privately. Donations in his memory can be made to:
Rochester Spinal Association, Rochester Accessible Adventures
