Michael B. Fox

1950 - 2020

Michael Bruce Fox, age 69, spent a lifetime challenging and being challenged by his developmental disabilities and the systems that care for people with special needs.

Born July 10, 1950 in Indianapolis, IN, he was educated in the area's public school special education classes until almost age 16. He learned to read, print, and write in cursive script, do simple arithmetic and spell with an almost eighth-grade ability. When his slight speech impediment made it difficult for some people to comprehend what he was saying, he would spell the words they couldn't understand.

His parents, the late Joseph and the late Lillian Fox, worked tirelessly not only to augment his formal education, but also to teach him about the world he lived in. They always made him an active part of his family, but not the focus of the household that also included his sister, Brenda Fox Stone of Northbrook, and his grandmother, the late Kate Friedman. Fox died peacefully March 12 at Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital after a brief illness.

Incredible role models for how to raise a child, especially one with handicaps, his parents always maximized his abilities and opportunities and refused to dwell on his limitations. They gave him the freedom to explore, proudly handing him two- wheel bicycles that he raced down suburban streets with his sister. They allowed him to climb the steps of high diving boards, then happily jump into the deep water below and swim fearlessly.

Fox was a Cub Scout, with his mother as the den mother, just as she had led her daughter's Girl Scout troop. He loved going to the Indianapolis 500 auto races and rock concerts, especially the Beatles. He received a Jewish education in his synagogue's religious school, was able to recite basic prayers in Hebrew, and loudly sang Chanukah songs. He learned to stifle giggles when he heard the unique sounds of the shofar on Yom Kippur, but laughed out loud when he heard "Davy Crockett," "16 Tons," "The Purple People Eater," and "The Chipmunk Song" on his ever-present radios.

Many weekends and holidays of his youth were spent working in the family's small menswear store in Martinsville, IN, where Fox was the official greeter and in charge of putting Levi's back on the shelves in proper size order and folding sweaters.

Near his 16th birthday, when his father died suddenly, Fox began going to work in the Martinsville store everyday with his mother, giving her good company and conversation on the nearly 100-mile round trips they made each day between store and home. When a fire burned out the business a few years later, he entered the sheltered workshop system in Indianapolis, where he did tasks of daily living for the next 16 years.

By his early 30s, Fox and his aging mother moved to Northbrook to be near his sister. He did sheltered workshop work a few more years, often winning certificates of excellence. He became the cherished uncle to his sister's three children, changing them and feeding them, rocking them to sleep and playing with them on the floor. His kindness and tenderness towards them were reciprocated many times over as those children became adults, one even becoming a special education teacher.

Eventually it was no longer feasible for Fox to continue living with his elderly mother and he moved into residential care for the developmentally disabled, first into private facilities and for the last 21 years of his life in a state-operated developmental center.

Some 13 years ago, under medical care that was not the finest and in a population where psychotropic drugs, despite his family's strenuous objections, were often excessively used to maintain quiet and reduce certain behaviors, Fox lost all ability to walk, to talk, to feed himself and to keep his eyes open. Even to the end of his life he understood what was happening around him, but could communicate only by changes in facial expression, a sly smile, unintelligible babbling and uncoordinated body gestures. The diagnosis, medication-induced encephalopathy, robbed him of all his hard-won abilities and his family, especially his sister, lost his joyful companionship.

Besides his sister Brenda (the late Dr. Lawrence A. Stone), a former reporter for the Chicago Tribune, Fox is survived by his niece Karen Stone Sussman (Adam), nephew Jason (Nieve) Stone and great-nephew Logan; niece Marnie Kate Price (David), great-nephew Lincoln, great-niece Makenzie and numerous cousins.

His family is extremely grateful to each and every person at Lake Forest Hospital who touched his life and theirs with the highest standards of medical care, kindness and compassion over the past several months and helped them all to reach a peaceful end.

Services were held March 13, conducted by Rabbi Carl Wolkin, rabbi emeritus of Congregation Beth Shalom, Northbrook, under the direction of The Goldman Funeral Group, Buffalo Grove, with burial at Shalom Memorial Park, Arlington Heights.

Memorial contributions may be made to Congregation Beth Shalom, 3433 Walters Av., Northbrook, and Keshet , 600 Academy Dr., #130, Northbrook, IL 60062.