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GREENWICH, Conn. – William "Bill" Joseph Fox, a longtime resident of Old Greenwich and Stamford, died Jan. 16, surrounded by his wife and children. He was 91.
Fox was born April 13, 1921, in Bay Ridge, N.Y., to Margaret Brill and Adolph Fox. He graduated from Brooklyn Preparatory School in 1937 at the age of 16 and received bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1941 and a master's degree in chemistry in 1942 from the College of the Holy Cross.
He joined the Navy at the start of World War II as a minesweeper in the Chesapeake and later on the battleship Nevada in the Pacific. In 1945, he left the Navy as a full lieutenant. He married Ethel Brennan on May 3, 1944, at St. Patrick's Cathedral.
After the war, Fox graduated from Brooklyn Law School with an LLB in 1947. He then joined the Dorr Co. in Stamford as a patent attorney. Over the next 20 years, Fox rose to president and later chairman of the board at Dorr-Oliver on Havemeyer Lane in Stamford.
In 1969, he left to form the Whitlock Corp., which he sold in 1980 to a British corporation. Since 1983, he maintained a home in Naples, Fla., where he and his wife spent every winter. He built two homes in Greenwich before moving to Stamford in 1996.
He was a founder of Burning Tree Country Club in 1961 and served as the second president of the club. At his death, he was the longest-serving member of the club.
Fox is survived by his wife; two children, Patricia B. Fox and William J. Fox Jr.; and two grandchildren.
Visitation is 4 to 8 p.m. Monday at Leo P. Gallagher and Son Funeral Home in Stamford. A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated at 11 a.m. Tuesday at St. Leo's Church in Stamford.
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